The Story of How a Venture Philanthropy Fund Catalyzed the Sciences Market for Type 1 Diabetes

The following is a conversation between Sean Doherty, the Chairman of the JDRF Type 1 Diabetes Fund, and Denver Frederick, the Host of The Business of Giving. In 2015, a group of JDRF volunteers, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, observed that there was virtually no private investment in type 1 diabetes, which was causing a gap between scientific advancements and the delivery of solutions to the people who need them. Their solution: launch the JDRF T1D Fund, a venture philanthropy fund to create a market in T1D by using their capital and expertise to convince venture capital, biotech, and pharma to make the investments needed to cure type 1 diabetes. And here to tell us about how this work is going is Sean Doherty, the chairman of the T1D Fund.