First centre for pancreatic cancer treatment for Lisbon
The world’s first specialised pancreatic cancer research and treatment centre is to be developed in Lisbon.
The project, which will be ready in two years, will be linked directly to the Champalimaud Foundation and will be housed in a purpose-built centre by the Champalimaud
The Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Centre will be funded from a €50 million bequest from Mauricio and Charlotte Botton who own the food producer behind Danone yoghurts and other foodstuffs.
It will be the first medical unit in the world dedicated entirely to the scientific research and treatment of and research of pancreatic cancer, one cancer which currently is extremely difficult to treat and often discovered when it is too late to save the patient.
The centre will be built on a parcel of land next to the existing Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown.
It is the first time that a foreign family has made such a significant philanthropic contribution to a Portuguese foundation.
Mauricio Botton Carasso is the grandson of Isaac Carasso who in 1919 founded Danone which over the 20th century became one of the largest and most important companies in the foodstuffs sector.
Danone is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris and founded in Barcelona, Spain.
As of 2018, Danone sells products in 120 markets and in 2017 enjoyed sales of €24.7Bn. In 2018 29% of sales comes from specialised nutrition, 19% comes from waters and 52% from essential diary and plant-based products.
Danone has also set up 18 institutes in countries around the world to develop programmes that address local public health issues and operate under the aegis of the Danone Institute International employing or using more than 200 experts in the field of diet and nutrition.
The Champalimaud Foundation is a private biomedical research foundation that was set up according to the will of the late entrepreneur António de Sommer Champalimaud in 2004.
The mission of the foundation is to “develop programmes of advanced biomedical research and provide clinical care of excellence with a focus on translating pioneering scientific discoveries into solutions which can improve the quality of life of individuals around the world.
Its Lisbon research and treatment centre Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown offers multidisciplinary research with the best conditions to attract and maintain the best academics, researchers and doctors from over 20 different countries in the fields of molecular biology, genetics, immunology, oncology, neurosciences and behavioural psychology. The centre was opened in 2011.
