foundation

THE FOUNDATION



Promotes, selects, and funds advanced clinical research projects and basic projects to improve the quality of life of cystic fibrosis patients, the most widespread genetic disorder in the West. Founded in Verona in January 1997, it is the only Italian organisation supporting precise and systematic scientific research. To date, it has funded 163 projects and constantly supported young scientists with scholarships and research agreements.

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is one of the few Non-profits recognised by the Istituto Italiano di Donazione (IID) because it operates based on criteria of efficiency, transparency, and reliability, audited annually by the IID. This guarantee for donors is further confirmed by HON (Health On the Net) certification shown on the Foundation’s website, attesting to the reliability of its medical information. Thanks to the contribution of about 400 researchers from over 120 clinical groups and laboratories in Italy and throughout the world, the Foundation has achieved important results that seem to offer hope, especially with regard to promising drugs to correct the genetic defect that causes this disease. Current scientific research is moving in this direction, in step with work on stem cells.

Vittoriano Faganelli is the Foundation’s President, Prof. Gianni Mastella is Scientific Director, and Matteo Marzotto is Vice President. The Foundation offers delegations, CFF support groups, companies, groups, and individuals the opportunity to adopt a variety of research support projects that have been examined by a medical-scientific committee.

www.fibrosicisticaricerca.it


THE INITIATIVE


Milan, 16 May 2012 - The charity partnership that has linked Philip Watch, the oldest brand of Swiss-made watches on the Italian market, to the Fondazione per la Ricerca sulla Fibrosi Cistica Onlus (FFC) (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a Non-profit organisation) since 2010 is continuing and becoming even stronger. The company has renewed its commitment with a donation of Euro 220,000 to support two promising scientific projects to find new ways to fight lung inflammation, one of the main complications of cystic fibrosis, the most widespread genetic disorder. The donation will also support the Servizio Nazionale sulle Colture Primarie, a laboratory created by the Foundation at the G. Gaslini Institute of Genoa, to supply high-quality biological material to the scientific community working in CF research..

Matteo Marzotto, one of the founders and Vice President of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, is once again the testimonial of the new communication campaign created by artist and photographer Giovanni Gastel.Philip Watch will contribute the testimonial’s entire fee to the Foundation, proof of the participants’ commitment to this important charity project. Philip Watch continues to grow, concentrating on the force of its tradition and history. This year, it reissued its historical Caribbean 1000 model, belonging to one of its most successful collections and best representing the values and essence of the brand: a history made of Italian design and Swiss technology from day one.

Matteo Marzotto has chosen the new Caribbean model, a collection created in the 1950s with diving models that became legendary thanks to their reliability and high performance. In fact, their first testimonials were professional coral divers from Italy’s Campania region! These watches feature excellent finishings and elegant parts, plus details such as the vintage logo, the same colours as the original ’60s model, and the decompression scale on the bezel, which make them even more precious and linked to the Philip Watch heritage. This will be an opportunity to present previews of the Fall/Winter 2013 collections with the Wales Calendario, Trafalgar, and Cruiser models. Distinctive details: special touches such as the calendar complication for the Wales collection model, brilliants for Trafalgar women’s models, and bracelets for Cruiser models.

The studies that Philip Watch supports this year are part of one of the five areas in which the Foundation has concentrated its efforts in recent years, i.e., the analysis of new strategies to fight lung inflammation, a very frequent complication in cystic fibrosis victims that dramatically affects their life expectancy.

Philip Watch’s contribution to the Foundation will fully fund two studies in this area.Project FFC#21/2011, coordinated by Dr. Virgilio Evangelista (Vascular Biology and Pharmacology Laboratory of Consorzio M. Negri Sud, Chieti), in partnership with Dr. Mario Romano (Molecular Medicine Laboratory, Ce.S.I., Chieti-Pescara University), will involve eleven researchers for two years. The objective is to study a class of drugs called type 4 phosphodiesterases inhibitors, which have an anti-inflammatory effect and are in an advanced stage of testing in other severe lung diseases. If this molecule gives positive responses in preclinical models, clinical trials with CF patients could be rapidly arranged. Project FFC#22/2011, coordinated by Dr. Riccardo Ghidoni (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Dept. of Medicine, S. Paolo Hospital, University of Milan, Italy), will involve four researchers for two years and will study the effects of two new molecules that have provided anti-inflammatory effects in clinical trials. Specifically, the project will test the effectiveness of administering these drugs via aerosol therapy (the most appropriate method for lung disease) by means of a new formulation based on microscopic lipid vesicles. Lastly, part of the donation will support the Servizio Nazionale sulle Colture Primarie, created by Dr. Luis Galietta at the Gaslini Hospital of Genoa with the Foundation’s support. The laboratory, the only one of its kind in Italy, supplies bronchial epithelial cells (taken from lungs removed from CF patients undergoing transplant) to CF researchers. These cells are extremely important for the testing of new drugs and a decisive step prior to clinical trials with patients.


 
We are very grateful to Philip Watch for giving us the opportunity to gather significant new funds for research in Italy. Four babies are born with cystic fibrosis and one person dies from the disease each week. Currently, there is no definitive cure and thanks to progress in clinical trials, life expectancy has reached approximately 40 years and continues to extend, but unfortunately we are still talking about a real "disease on a timer.
 
   

Matteo Marzotto
Vice President of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation


 
We are nearing our goal, but we need help from everyone, initiatives such as this help patients have more faith in the certainty that society is taking care of their future.
 
   

Professor Gianni Mastella
Scientific Director of the Italian Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation


 
A successful partnership. The projects carried out during the previous two years achieved excellent results and have made us proud. Our continued commitment to support the CFF is extremely important, and we hope that our contribution to these scientific projects may help find a long-sought cure for cystic fibrosis.
 
   
 
Massimo Carraro
CEO of Philip Watch