The Michael J. Fox Foundation has awarded a whopping $4.9 million grant to a biopharmaceutical company to assist them in their work fighting Parkinson's disease.
The non-profit foundation was started by Fox in 2000 and is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through research and development of therapies.
Now, they're granting a large sum to Muna Therapeutics to "support ongoing preclinical research" and assist in developing medication to prevent neuro-inflammation and enhance brain protection for patients with Parkinson's, PR Newswire reported.
Canadian-born Fox was himself diagnosed with the brain disorder in the 90s - which causes sufferers to experience slowness of movement, tremors, or muscle stiffness, per the NHS. Other signs can include balance issues, nerve pain, dizziness, or swallowing difficulties.
Since his diagnosis, Fox has been transparent and vocal about his experience, campaigning for research into the disease that affects up to a million people in the US, Parkinson.org has reported.
In 2020, the 61-year-old published a memoir about his life aptly titled No Time Like the Future - in reference to his involvement in the highly popular Back to the Future franchise. In an interview with Fresh Air, Fox was asked about the limitations he faced after his diagnosis.
He said: "Because of the back - the complication of the back surgery, I have a loss of strength in - less strength in my legs and my limbs and my trunk and my core. So you add that to the spasticity of the Parkinson's, and it makes for a kind of marionette-ish beginning to every day.
"I'm kind of all akimbo and not very steady on my feet. So I have to - it takes about an hour for me to get functional in the morning so I can go out."
The father-of-four added that his speech has been impaired, revealing: "I can be halting [...] Words come to me faster than I can speak them. I'll go to say something, and before I arrive at the right word, I'll arrive at a word that's not quite what I want to say, but that won't be loaded up and ready to go.
"So I'll put that one out, and then I'll have to follow up quickly with the one I meant to say. And that can get you into trouble sometimes."
Earlier this year, Fox spoke on Instagram about his life with Parkinson's, stating: "I went through a real crisis in 2018, I was sitting on the floor and I was thinking. Well, this optimism [expletive] sucks, this is only bad. And then as I came through it, I thought if you can find something to be grateful for then optimism is sustainable."
"We just want to find a cure for Parkinson's. Fifteen years ago I couldn't have sat here for this long," he added.
In the past 20 years, The Michael J. Fox Foundation has raised an impressive $1 billion for research into Parkinson's disease.
