Direct preventative health action - $35 million for a diabetes clinical trial network
Hundreds of families in our local community could benefit directly or in the future from the establishment of Diabetes Clinical Trial Network (CTN) in Australia, said the Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke.
Mr Hawke said the Coalition will provide $35 million dollars to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to pursue finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes through the Clinical Trial Network from next year.
“There will be hundreds of families in the Hills in which a family member suffers from Type 1 Diabetes,” Mr Hawke said.
“Earlier this year I had the opportunity to meet with a young local resident, Marika Martiskin, and have my blood tested as part of ‘Kids in the House.’”
Kids in the House featured over one hundred Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Youth Ambassadors aged 3 to 32, all with type 1 diabetes, converging on Parliament House to personally ask for government funding for type 1 diabetes research and a Clinical Trials Network (CTN).
“Establishment of a Diabetes CTN in Australia will enable people with diabetes to join international clinical trials for promising new treatments and technologies for diabetes,” Mr Hawke said.
Mr Hawke noted this could give access to treatments five or ten years before they would otherwise become available in Australia.
“It could bring researchers just that much closer to a cure for this chronic and life-threatening disease,” Mr Hawke said.
There are an estimated 140,000 sufferers of Type 1 diabetes in Australia, 20,000 of those are children. Overall Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes affects more than 800,000 Australians.
An operative CTN would speed up access to the latest treatments and technologies, translate promising Australian research into clinical outcomes, improve health and reduce complications for those with Type 1 diabetes.
Mr Hawke said there could be flow on benefits to Australians who suffer other auto-immune diseases.
“Some people with Type 2 diabetes who experience the same life threatening complications as those with Type 1 diabetes will also benefit,” Mr Hawke said.