Drugs company funds brain research

Pharmaceutical company Shire, which sells a leading treatment for children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the US, has donated the money to the charity to fund research into how trauma affects the development of children's brains.

The research will examine why disturbed children find it hard to manage their behaviour. Kids Company believes it is because their brains are hypersensitised to stress as a result of their formative experiences and want to see if sport and alternative therapies can calm down the parts of their brains that are constantly over-aroused.

Shire's cash will help pay the salaries of seven Kids Company staff and fund a programme of physical therapies and sport activities for children taking part in the research. The therapies include massage, reflexology and osteopathy. There will also be a gym programme for young people with a martial arts specialist and boxing instructor.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, director and founder of Kids Company, said: "Shire is a really interesting pharmaceutical company because it advocates the use of holistic therapies before drug intervention, it's amazing that it's so radical. It is really forward thinking and it recognises that there are changes in the brains of children that have been exposed to terror and abuse."

Jessica Mann, senior vice president of global corporate communications at Shire, said the partnership between the firm and Kids Company was natural because both are interested in ADHD and both are focused on holistic, whole-patient therapies.

Mann said Shire's decision to fund the research has nothing to do with commercial gain. "We were approached by Camila and her team when they were looking at establishing funding for this project. We ran the details past our chief scientific officer and our interest grew as a result of that," she said. "The funding is just part of our overall corporate responsibility community strategy."

- www.kidsco.org.uk.