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| January 25, 2008
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| Congresswoman Slaughter Announces $1.6M for CUBRC |
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Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, today joined Tom McMahon, President and CEO of CUBRC, Inc., to announce that $1.6 million in federal funds has been secured for the development of a new generation of anti-viral drugs for the treatment of new and emerging viral threats for which current medical counter-measures are inadequate or non-existent.
The funding was secured by Rep. Slaughter in the FY 2008 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill for the “Defense Against Viral Infection” (DAVI) program at CUBRC’s Medical Biotechnology laboratories located in the New York State Center for Bioinformatics and Life Sciences in downtown Buffalo.
“These funds will advance the world-class research being done right in our own backyard, at the same time potentially mitigating the devastation of a flu or other viral pandemic on our local communities and national security,” said Rep. Slaughter. “Not only does this federal funding ensure that Buffalo remains a leader in the field of biomedical research, but gives the region a needed economic boost by promoting growth and job creation.”
“I eagerly await all of the breakthroughs that will be ushered in with this research,” continued Slaughter.
Tom McMahon Quote:
“CUBRC is sincerely grateful to Congresswoman Slaughter for her strong support of our therapeutics initiative and our overall mission of generating technological and economic impact in Western New York. Indeed, this funding will allow CUBRC to continue to build our team of World-class scientists while offering professional scientific career paths for the best and brightest of our local talent. With this critical initial funding, we will begin development of a completely novel class of drugs that will work to stop the growth of emerging viruses which have the potential to pose a serious threat to our military, as well as civilian population.”
BACKGROUND:
An influenza outbreak could have a significant impact on military effectiveness, as well as devastating our civilian economy. The high transmissibility of influenza could lead to significant morbidity and mortality and the crippling of critical national security functions. A 33 percent loss of the manpower in any unit would result in operational ineffectiveness.
If it mutates, the H5N1 influenza, with its high virulence and human morbidity/mortality, could unleash a devastating pandemic, permitting human-to-human transmission. The unusually high case fatality rate, even in young, otherwise healthy individuals (such as those serving in our military), and the development of resistance to available anti-viral drugs is of great concern with the H5N1 influenza. Similarly, other viruses such as West Nile Virus, pose potentially grave threats for the future. Given the risk of an influenza pandemic, the narrow window of opportunity available for intervention, and the impact that such an event would have on national security, as the operational effectiveness of the armed forces is severely impacted, the DAVI novel drug development platform will ameliorate and try to eliminate this threat to military health.
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