Sean Parker gives $250 Million for Cancer Research

Billionaire Sean Parker, the former president of Facebook Inc., has given $250 million to create a research institute dedicated to developing treatments that harness the immune system to combat cancer.
The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy will try to make it easier for more than 300 scientists from six top cancer centers around the U.S. to work together, and with drug companies, to develop treatments and bring them to market, according to a statement Wednesday from Parker’s foundation. Intended to be self-sustaining, the institute will centralize licensing deals for the participating organizations, redistributing gains back to them and the Parker Foundation.
The approach may help reduce the time and effort that many researchers spend on getting financial support, leaving more for actual research, said Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. Brawley said the society provides $150 million a year for investigations, and only 10 percent of the applications that merit funding actually get a grant.