Smart Cancer Research: David Van Andel and his wife are devoted to finding practical cancer treatments

December 27, 2013, 10:54 A.M. ET

Smart Cancer Research

By Robert Milburn

At the Van Andel Institute, a cancer research organization based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, impatience with the medical status quo is baked into its DNA. Currently, it takes ten years and a billion dollars to get a drug approved by the FDA, says David Van Andel, the institute’s chairman and CEO. That’s simply unacceptable, he says.Which is why Van Andel has pushed his institute to focus on translational research, which aims to speed up the adoption of research from “bench to bedside.” The bulk of the institute’s recent work is in repurposing existing drugs for other uses, and on improving early diagnosis of deadly diseases. “I think [medical research] too often loses the human face and focuses too much on the science,” Van Andel says. “We forget that we’re dealing with life and death situations for people who depend on these treatments.”

He is not spouting public relations slogans. “David and I were married a year and a half, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer,” says his wife, Carol. “At 24 years old, you think you’re pretty wise.” Since that terrifying diagnosis about 30 years ago, the couple, financially blessed, have devoted themselves to fighting cancer in all its guises. “We’re impatient because we know how important it is to find a cure as quickly as we can,” Carol says. And it helps, she says, that “this organization is being led by two people who have heard the devastating words ‘you have cancer.’ It’s that personal element that we know well.”

And bring to the work. The institute was established when David and his father, Jay Van Andel, co-founder of the Amway Corporation, began talking about the family’s legacy some twenty years ago. “My father and mother recognized the fact that they had been blessed, and wanted to do something significant,” David says. The elderly couple eventually set up a $1.2 billion endowment to fund the Van Andel Institute’s operating costs, ensuring that any grant money or philanthropic dollars raised outside of the family would be entirely devoted to medical research.

Life didn’t work out as planned. David worked twenty years at Amway, with every intention of devoting his entire life to the business. But as work at the institute began to eat up more and more of his time, it became increasingly obvious that he was making a career change. “It’s interesting how life takes twists and turns,” David says. “I had no idea where it would lead or how much it would impact my life.” In 2000, David actively took the helm of the institute. “Looking back, it is obvious that this is what we were meant to do,” says Carol.

The Van Andel Institute and its $1.2 billion endowment are housed in a 400,000 square foot building; 85% of that space is devoted to research. Impressive as that is, it is still below the Mayo Clinic or Duke Clinical Research in size, and the VAI had to establish its own voice and mission. “We were never going to be the biggest. But we wanted to be the best at what we do and have a more immediate impact on human health,” says David.

To that end, the institute has carved out a niche by avoiding duplicative research and instead focusing on existing research and translating those lab breakthroughs in ways that practically and immediately help people struggling with terrible diseases. If the institute “could help shorten the time it takes for a drug to be approved for use by 5, 6 or even 7 years,” says David, “it could impact a person’s life substantially.”

Promising VAI research in the pipes include a cardiovascular drug to treat Parkinson’s disease and a method of tackling cancer with anti-malarial drugs. Repurposing existing drugs avoids waiting for time-consuming FDA approval, while, elsewhere, a diagnostic blood test that the VAI is developing could be used to test for Parkinson’s, potentially detecting the disease 10 years before the afflicted person even exhibits symptoms.

Below the surface of the science, however, it’s a highly personal family affair. “David is the visionary,” says Carol. “I enjoy taking that vision out to our community.” The couple raises millions of dollars each year; one such effort is Carol Van Andel’s Purple Community, launched in 2009. The community raises awareness about cancer, Parkinson’s and other diseases, having held 250 events and generated $1 million through fundraising.

The lesson: Nothing motivates a family and their worldly mission than the hammer blows of life.