Lee Iacocca Announces Campaign to Raise Money for Diabetes Research

Business Wire,  August 16, 2004  

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NEW YORK -- Lee Iacocca announced today the launch of "Join Lee Now," a fundraising initiative to investigate a potential cure for type 1 diabetes. In the 1980s, Lee Iacocca spearheaded a $500 million campaign to reopen the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Now, 20 years later, he is going back to the American people to raise $11 million to fund a potential cure for type 1 diabetes. Mr. Iacocca will be announcing his new initiative, www.joinleenow.org, on Monday August 16th in New York City. The funds raised as part of this initiative will be separate from the giving the Iacocca Foundation currently contributes to diabetes research and will go directly to support the clinical trials investigating this potential cure at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

"Since the death of my wife in 1983 from the complications of diabetes, I have been driven to do everything I can to fund diabetes research. Last year, one of the researchers we have supported for over a decade cured type 1 diabetes in mice. I'm not going to wait for the government or the pharmaceutical industry to decide to get the human trials going. We need $11 million for these clinical trials now. I've given the first million and I'm asking the American people to get behind me and give the rest," said Lee Iacocca, Chairman of the Iacocca Foundation.

Dr. David Nathan, director of the MGH Diabetes Center and one of this country's diabetes experts, will direct the clinical trials at MGH. Dr Denise Faustman's initial work, which cured type 1 diabetes in mice, was largely funded by donations from the Iacocca Foundation. MGH is working with the Food and Drug Administration to move this science into human clinical trials. Lee Iacocca and the Iacocca Foundation are working closely with MGH to ensure the $11 million goal is met for the next phase of this research.

"Lee Iacocca and his foundation have made this research possible, beginning at the earliest stages and through our recent breakthrough. The Massachusetts General Hospital and I are honored and excited that he has offered to make this tremendous contribution and commitment to our research," said Dr. Denise Faustman, Director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory.

"In the 1980s, they said that ordinary Americans wouldn't send checks to refurbish Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. They were wrong. I received lots of checks, big and small, from people all over the world and we achieved our goal. We can do it again," said Lee Iacocca, Chairman of the Iacocca Foundation.

Mr. Iacocca and Dr. Faustman will be available for media interviews on Monday, August 16th and Tuesday, August 17th. Please contact Russell LaMontagne or Alexander Charles of Corinth Group Communications, 212/255-5340, to set up an interview.

About Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes has been recognized as a unique disease for more than three thousand years. It is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States, contributing to more than 450,000 deaths annually. Over 17 million Americans have diabetes (5.4 million of whom do not know they have the disease), and each year an additional 800,000 people are diagnosed with diabetes. There are two types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. In type 1 diabetes, which is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, the body does not produce insulin. In type 2 diabetes, which is usually diagnosed in adults, the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Recent economic data shows soaring amounts of money spent each year to fight diabetes in the U.S. and worldwide. Because the only known way to prevent complications from this disease is blood sugar regulation, involving self administered doses of exogenous insulin and blood sugar monitoring 3 to 5 times per day, the chronic long-term care costs for a person with diabetes are estimated to be between $15,000 and $20,000 each year. Care costs are dramatically increased once the complications of the disease begin to emerge.

About Dr. Faustman's Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital

Diabetes is an autoimmune disease. In autoimmune diseases, the immune system is defective and attacks or mediates an attack on the body's healthy tissues and organs. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the islet cells of the pancreas, which are the cells in the body that produce insulin. Dr. Faustman and her colleagues at MGH have identified the defects in the immune system involved in the destruction of insulin-producing cells and are working to develop a therapy that stops the autoimmune system for attacking these cells. Using spleen cells from non-diabetic mice, Dr. Faustman and her colleagues have been able to "re-educate" the recipient's immune system and stop the destruction of islet cells. In November 2003, they published the results of a successful reversal of type 1 diabetes in mice in the journal Science. Dr. Faustman's research has significant implications not only to the future of diabetes treatment, but also to other autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and lupus.