The award was announced by Karolinska Institutet, the respected Swedish institute that awards the Nobel prize for medicine. Fox in 2000 set up the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research that has contributed over 175 million dollars to Parkinson's drug development research around the world, including at Karolinska Institutet.
The ceremony was to take place later Friday at the home of the Swedish honorary consul general in New York, the institute said.
"Strongly influenced by Michael's personal philosophy, his foundation operates with rare dynamism and a constant focus on speeding breakthrough treatments to the world's five million Parkinson's patients," said Associate Professor Clara H Gumpert, who represented the institute's Board of Research.