Emerging as a movement in the research community, decentralized science (DeSci) initiatives are advancing at a pace that even big pharmaceutical companies cannot ignore. In fact, Pfizer is now the first pharmaceutical to vote on the blockchain-based proposals of the German organization VitaDAO in a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
The collaboration is part of VitaDAO’s latest fundraising published in late January from strategic members including Pfizer Ventures, Shine Capital and L1 Digital, among other longevity enthusiasts. The $4.1 million raised will be used to fund longevity research projects and accelerate VitaDAO’s first biotech startups, with two more being developed by 2023.
“Pfizer is now bringing in some of its own scientists to join the community of researchers that are part of VitaDAO to help incubate some of this research,” Alex Dobrin, community and awareness manager at VitaDAO, told Cointelegraph.
DeSci has fostered a thriving ecosystem with projects ranging from decentralized biotech foundations to vehicle financing. “Some of the main trends in this area may include research and investment platforms, crowdfunding for scientific research, scientists and research communities,” explained Dr. Tuan Cao, founder of GenomicDAO, a platform based in San Francisco. launched on February 19 by the biotechnology company AI Genetica.
This decentralized platform aims to create a community to drive and manage Asia-focused precision medicine initiatives. Its first subsidiary DAO works on stroke prevention, focusing on awareness and research and development in the field of ischemic strokes.
Worldwide, stroke is one of the most common causes of disability and vascular death. American Heart Association news that in 2019 there were more than 77 million ischemic strokes worldwide. Asian populations have higher rates of stroke than Western populations, study finds published in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension in 2021.
GenomicDAO claims that combining a network of research groups, institutions, organizations, scientists and medical experts with artificial intelligence can reduce the time to release a new product from 12-18 months to 4-6 months. According to GenomicDAO, community-driven initiatives are disrupting scientific research:
“In the precision medicine space, R&D is led by a handful of big names in the industry, who de-facto monopolize the market. Monopolistic and centralized pharmaceutical companies, equivalently, lead to stagnant innovation; while widening the gap in providing precision medicine to underrepresented populations”.
