Crypto Altruism Podcast Episode 53 - Crowd Funded Cures - DeSci and the decentralization of public good medicines
In Episode 53, we’re thrilled to be joined by Savva Kerdemelidis and Nicholas Fiorenza from Crowd Funded Cures, a web3 project with a mission to launch a DeSci crowdfunding platform to incentivise the discovery of new uses for off-patent drugs, plant medicines, nutraceuticals and other unmonopolisable therapies without reliance on patents by using IP-NFTs, Pay-for-Success (PFS) contracts, and the issue of Public Good Medical Prize NFTs. Sound complicated? Don’t worry, they do a great job of breaking it down in this episode as we discuss the role web3 can play in funding medical research and development, IPNFTs, and the amazing potential in the DeSci movement.
About the Guests
Savva Kerdemelidis is a Commercial/IP/Crypto Legal Consultant and a NZ and Australian Patent and Trade Mark Attorney with 18+ years experience advising web3 and technology companies including the DeSci projects VitaDAO and Molecule, and DeFi projects Kuva.com and Amon.tech. He conducted his LLM thesis on alternatives to the patent system for developing medicines, and established Crowd Funded Cures as a NZ charity in 2013.
Nick Fiorenza is a published molecular biologist with 7+ years of life science startup industry experience. His masters thesis focused on repurposing off-patent anti-psychotic drugs for anti-cancer therapy. Nick is passionate about merging healthcare with the nascent web3 ecosystem and has experience building DeSci DAOs.
Five Key Takeaways
DeSci provides new opportunities to engage individuals and communities in scientific research and development, and to create a more collaborative and open-source space.
IPNFTs allow for the fractionalization of ownership in early-stage biopharma projects and research, providing greater access to liquidity for researchers.
Pay-for-success models help incentivize research into new uses for off-patent medicines without the traditional risks.
IPNFTs and pay-for-success models will allow for greater research into medicines and therapies that have traditionally been ignored due to a lack of profitability.
Blockchain alone won’t solve the issues plaguing scientific research and development, but it will make solving them a lot easier.
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Episode Time Stamps
02:17 - What was your “Ah hah” moment that originally got you interested in cryptocurrency and web3?
05:11 - Give me a high-level overview of Crowdfunded Cures, and how it all got started
10:12 - What are public good medicines, and why did you choose this as your area of focus?
12:34 - As part of your platform, you are planning to make use of IP-NFTs and a Pay-for-success model to fund research and testing – tell me more about this.
17:39 - I understand that you are looking to potentially restructure CFC as a DAO in the future. Tell me about the roadmap for this.
22:10 – How do you reconcile decentralization and medical research, which is traditionally highly centralized?
27:05 - What is the long-term vision for Crowdfunded Cures?
30:31 - I understand that you are partnership in the works with VitaDAO, and potential NFT collections, tell me more.
36:21 - DeSci is a relatively new movement that aims to disrupt how scientific research and development takes place. What do you think the DeSci movement will look like 5-10 years in the future?
38:08 - What’s the best way for listeners to learn more and get involved with Crowdfunded Cures?
39:56 - To wrap things up, if you could name one thing that excites you most about the social impact potential of web3, what would it be and why?
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DISCLAIMER
While we may discuss specific projects or cryptocurrencies in this podcast, please don’t take any of this as investment advice, and please make sure to do your own research on any potential investment opportunities. Full disclaimer available HERE.
