WASHINGTON (WXIN) – We know the ALS ice bucket challenge helped raise a lot of money – 115 million dollars to be exact!
And now we know exactly where that money is going!
According to Time, some of the first projects to receive funding include one trying to sequence the genes of 15,000 people with ALS, one partnering with pharmaceutical companies to advance drug treatment, and one developing gene therapy that might reduce the spread of the disease through the body.
Time also reports that the ALS Association has distributed more than $20 million so far and has committed to seeing any project it’s funded through to completion.
“We are tripling the amount annually that we spend on research,” said ALS Association President Barbara Newhouse. “We have a sense of urgency, but we also we recognize that we have to be good stewards of the donor dollars as we move this forward as quickly as researchers can research.”
In addition to funding research, the Ice Bucket Challenge money will be used to improve treatment for people living with disease, Newhouse said.
Newhouse also said that the 100 million plus in donations is more of a starting point than the key to a solution.
“I’m always a glass half-full kind of person,” she said. “But we would be kidding ourselves if anybody believed that $100 million is going to be all that’s needed to find an effective treatment.”
