Chrysler's pledge to boost Iacocca's antidiabetes fund

DETROIT -- Former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca just got a lot closer to his goal of raising $11.5 million for clinical trials of a promising new treatment for diabetes. DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group said its dealers will give Iacocca's foundation $1 for every vehicle sold for the next 14 months.

''I've known these dealers all my life, and they're going to help me make the clinical trials move along," Iacocca said.

Iacocca, who retired from Chrysler in 1992, said the deal came about this summer when Chrysler asked him to appear in ads for the firm's employee-discount deal. Iacocca agreed, but only if Chrysler would help him with his campaign to find a cure for diabetes.

Chrysler paid Iacocca $1.5 million to appear in five ads. He donated his fee to the Iacocca Foundation's Join Lee Now campaign. The clinical trials will be conducted by a team based at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Iacocca said the deal with Chrysler could raise $3 million or more.