Question for Dr. Draelos

[Guide]

I sent an email to Dr. Draelos to ask her if she could use her influence to get past the massive wall we have hit trying to get a donation from any of the pharmaceutical companies and here is the exchange:

From: Brady Barrows

Subject: Rosacea Research & Development Institute

Date: March 10, 2007 7:56:37 PM HST

To: Dr. Zoe Draelos

Dr. Draelos,

After reading your resumé and your connections with pharmaceutical companies I am confident that you would be very helpful in getting the RRDi some donations or grants for research.

We are committed to spending 90% of our funding with the donations we receive which is in stark contrast to what other non profit organizations spend on research. We can do this because the RRDi is made up of volunteers.

The National Rosacea Society has received from 1998 through 2005 in donations $6,200,400 of which only $561,132 was spent on rosacea research which is about 9% of the total donations. That means for every dollar donated to the NRS only 9 cents is spent on research. About 60% of the donations was spent on one private contractor, Glendale Communications Group, Inc., of Barrington, Ilinois which is owned by Sam Huff the director of the NRS.

The volunteers who founded the RRDi felt that something needs to be done about this and that is why we formed the non profit organization to do our own research so that the majority of the funds would be spent on research rather than running the organization.

We have contacted the pharmaceutical companies and have hit a huge wall of apathy. We need someone like you to get past this huge wall and help us be able to begin this process so that we can engage in some novel rosacea research that the pharmaceutical companies will be pleased with and get the respect of the medical community. Please help us with your expertise. Thanks.

Brady Barrows

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From: Dr. Zoe Draelos

Subject: Re: Rosacea Research & Development Institute

Date: March 11, 2007 2:25:46 PM HST

To: Brady Barrows

Dear Brady,

There is a great deal of research going on regarding rosacea. We currently have 2 studies running. These are FDA studies, however, and would only be of the type funded by industry, since the average study costs 20 million dollars. We have some smaller cosmetic related studies and they run about 100,000 dollars. This is where industry is putting its money. Because of the requirements of the government, research of this type cannot be performed in the private sector. I hope this helps you to understand better. The National Rosacea Society cannot fund this type of work either.

Best Wishes,

Zoe Diana Draelos, MD

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From: Brady Barrows

Subject: Re: Rosacea Research & Development Institute

Date: March 11, 2007 10:07:38 PM HST

To: Dr. Zoe Draelos

Dr. Draelos,

Thanks for your reply and if you ever hear of anything that the RRDi might be used to funnel some research through, please let me know. We do have some volunteer grant writers that need some direction and a project to pursue. The situation you describe is incredible but one would think that a pharmaceutical company might want a tax deduction and so far all have ignored our pleas for a donation.

Brady Barrows

______________________________________________ end of exchange

As you can see from Dr. Draelos comment about the possibility of getting donations from pharmaceutical companies is going to be quite a feat. However, we are in this for the long haul and with patience, perseverance, and more volunteers, we can continue to pursue industry donations for novel rosacea research.

Brady Barrows