Thank you so much for that question.
It does sound like a number we might have pulled out of a hat, but that's not so. There have recently been a number of international assessments on where the greatest gaps lie and how the unmet needs could quickly be addressed. Three areas have been identified and we've had those areas reviewed and validated by our partners, the Canadian Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium. We would create a national steering committee, of course, and the money would be managed with partners CIHR, 3CTN, CRS, etc. The money would be focused on research in three specific areas.
The first is novel treatment strategies, $2.25 million. I mentioned that with most patients ovarian cancer recurs, and this is where treatment falls off very very quickly. Interestingly, there have been a number of research teams in Canada that have been very successful in identifying novel treatments, but there's a gap between validating them and getting them to clinical trials. That would be the first area, novel treatment strategies.
Second, another $2.25 million would go to research into better experimental treatment models. I mentioned that funding for models overall is scarce, and it's very important because the models allow us to test the safety and efficacy of the treatment. Creating and improving experimental models can help uncover more information about the disease, which frankly, until even 10 years ago, was poorly understood. We know much more about it now. It is not one disease. It's many diseases with subtypes. It's very important that we have better models to bridge the gap between the discovery and the validation of new treatments.
Finally, the bigger piece, $5.5 million, would go to personalized medicine, the right medicine for the right person. We know that many of these treatments will not work in some of the subtypes of ovarian cancer, and yet women will receive treatment that doesn't make them feel better, doesn't stop their cancer, and costs the economy an enormous amount of burden in health. Treatments that are targeted for their cancer at the right time would really help change the outcome of this disease.