Austin Man Offers $1 Billion for Cancer Cure

July 28, 2008— -- DALLAS (AP) - Mike Dewey has a plan to eliminate breast cancer:He's offering $1 billion to the person who discovers the cure.

Never mind the fact the 48-year-old Austin consultant hasnothing close to that much money. Dewey, whose daughters are atincreased risk for the disease because his wife was diagnosed withbreast cancer, says he'll come up with the cash.

"I get pretty fired up about this because I've got girls indanger," said Dewey, who says he's raised about $22 million inpledges so far and about $90,000 in actual donations through hisnonprofit foundation.

While he's still quite a bit short of $1 billion and someexperts are critical of his idea, the energetic Dewey is unfazed --and certain money will roll in if there's a cure.

"I think that we've cracked the code for a new kind ofphilanthropy," said Dewey, who says he'd retain the intellectualrights to the cure but put it into the public domain for free. "People always have and people always will respond to economicstimuli."

Arthur Caplan, chair of the department of medical ethics at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said Dewey's plan seemsnaive.

"I think sometimes there is a belief that if we have the rightincentive, anything can be solved," he said. "This isn't aproblem of incentive. It's having the right luck, the rightbreakthrough, the right science to get the problem solved."

Margaret "Peg" Mastrianni, deputy director of the BreastCancer Research Foundation, said in a statement that donors wantassurance that their money will go to the "most promisinginvestigations and that progress will be monitored."

Dewey isn't alone in feeling some impatience with the pace ofresearch.

Dr. David Euhus, a surgical oncologist at the University ofTexas Southwestern Medical Center, said he's noticed that thosemaking grants are willing to take bolder steps because they're"getting a little frustrated" by the slow pace of traditionalresearch.

While Dewey's idea may make a social statement, Euhus said hedoesn't think many people will look at it as realistic.

"It's not one disease. It's hundreds of diseases. There arehundreds of ways of getting to the same endpoint - getting from anormal cell to a cancer cell," he said, pointing out that researchtakes millions of dollars.

Stan Cohen, who teaches a medical ethics course at NovaSoutheastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said offering afinancial incentive might help considering the slow, bureaucraticpace of funding research.

"There's nothing wrong with giving people rewards like that, inmy opinion," he said.

Dewey said some people think his idea is wacky, but that othersare intrigued.

Australian businessman and investor Toby Davidson said he haspledged $1 million to the foundation after meeting Dewey last yearand provided "working capital" to the foundation but declined tosay how much.

He said he hopes to be writing a check for $1 million one day.

"That's the whole point," he said. "Hopefully sooner ratherthan later."

Dewey, whose wife, Barbara, has been cancer-free since surgeryfollowing her diagnosis in 2000, founded his nonprofit DeweyFoundation in 2006.

He launched its Web site last year for the foundation, which hesays is offering other "Victory Project Awards" worth $1 billioneach to anyone who cures diabetes, reduces greenhouse emissionsfrom petroleum-powered automobiles by 95 percent, or creates a carcapable of getting 150 miles per gallon.

Dewey said he's in the process of assembling panels of expertsto judge whether a cure or solution to one of his stated issues hasbeen achieved. If no cure or solution is found within 30 years ofthe foundation's inception, the foundation will distribute anymoney raised to traditional charities, Dewey said.

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On the Net: www.deweyfoundation.org

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)