The billionaire Lauder family has been all-in on Alzheimer’s research since 1998, when brothers Ronald and Leonard set up the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation as their mother Estee battled the disease.
(Bloomberg) — The billionaire Lauder family has been all-in on Alzheimer’s research since 1998, when brothers Ronald and Leonard set up the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation as their mother Estee battled the disease.
Now the Lauders are stepping up their efforts. The brothers and their children — Leonard’s sons William and Gary, and Ronald’s daughters Jane and Aerin — are pledging $200 million to the foundation, its largest gift ever, according to a statement Tuesday.
“Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t affect just one person, it impacts entire families,” Leonard Lauder, 90, said in the statement. He has a net worth of $26.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“This family gift sets the stage for the next generation to tackle and ultimately end this devastating disease,” he said.
The three-generation dynasty is one of the world’s richest, with its wealth deriving from the cosmetics empire founded by Estee and Joseph Lauder in 1946. The fortune has fueled other philanthropic vehicles, such as Ronald founding the Neue Galerie and Leonard donating more than 80 works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Estee, who died of heart failure in 2004 at 97, had Alzheimer’s late in her life. The geriatric doctor that treated her, Howard Fillit, is the foundation’s chief science officer and a co-founder.
The foundation, which counts Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Dan Loeb as donors, has so far funneled about $250 million to more than 700 projects, which have helped take early-stage research through clinical trials.
About 6 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s. The foundation’s goal is to bring drugs to market quicker, as well as tools to prevent and diagnose the disease, according to the statement.
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