Brian G. Kelly, co-founder and current chairman of the board of Activision/Blizzard, launched the JDCA in 2011 after spending several years deeply researching T1D cure efforts. His son Tommy was diagnosed with T1D in 2006 at the age of 2. Like so many other parents whose life is turned upside down by T1D, Brian spent the next several years learning everything he could about how to make things better for Tommy and the millions of other kids living with T1D.
One key question Brian wanted to understand was why, after 30 years of effort and over $500 million donated each year for T1D, there has been so little game-changing progress toward a cure.
Brian and his team applied a business perspective to this question rather than one of pure science. The focus quickly centered on the major diabetes charities that control and raise the majority of financial resources for T1D research and, as a result, have more capacity than almost any other entity to deliver a cure.
Brian reached a strong conclusion that unless this situation changed, the likelihood of achieving a cure in the near term was substantially reduced, if not impossible—an unacceptable situation for him and for anyone battling T1D.
The Juvenile Diabetes Cure Alliance was formed to formally advocate for change.
