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| November 02, 2006
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| CUBRC Announcement of Major Contract Award |
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November 1, 2006:
CUBRC President and CEO, Tom McMahon, announced today the award of a major contract from the U.S. Department of Defense, worth up to nearly eight and a half million dollars over two years, the first four million of which has already been awarded. This win culminates a fierce competition between the world’s most prominent bio-pharmaceutical companies, universities, and research institutes for a critical U.S. Government program. The program aims to develop radically new, broad-spectrum antiviral therapies. Awarded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, this program will develop new drugs to treat viral hemorrhagic fever diseases of major importance to biodefense; providing protection to military personnel and civilians alike. Mr. McMahon, commenting on news of the award, stated “As a direct result of the collaboration and investments undertaken over the last several years -- by New York State, the Congressional Delegation, and the University at Buffalo -- in the NY State Center of Excellence for Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, this is a key win. It is the first of many victories to come to CUBRC, the Bioinformatics Center partners, and the citizens of Western New York. The extraordinary strength of CUBRC’s proposal was derived from the unique combination of CUBRC’s leadership position in the biodefense market, the revolutionary science offered by Prosetta Corporation (a San Francisco based biotechnology company partnering with the COE and CUBRC), and the powerful, both intellectual and infrastructure capital resident within the Bioinformatics Center and its partners.” Mr. McMahon further explained that CUBRC was able to leverage the funding secured by U.S. Congressman Tom Reynolds over the past four years to build CUBRC’s in-house biological laboratory capabilities with Congressman Reynolds’ other equally significant success -- securing $25 million dollars in Federal funding for the Bioinformatics Center -- to pursue and win this work. Mr. McMahon concluded by stating, "We are truly thankful for Congressman Reynolds’ efforts to secure funding for us to build the joint capabilities that position CUBRC and the COE to compete and win at this elite level.”
Dr. Bruce Holm, Senior Vice Provost of the University at Buffalo, and Executive Director of the NYS Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and the Life Sciences commented, “The CUBRC Team was in direct competition with most of the finest academic research institutions and commercial biotechnology companies in the world and clearly demonstrated they are not only on the playing field – but are playing to win. I don’t think there is any better validation of the strategy we’ve been pursuing methodically over the past five years to build a Life Sciences prominence in Western New York than this important competitive win.”
The aims of CUBRC’s winning program are two-fold: 1) to develop a whole new class of broad- spectrum antiviral drugs and 2) to create a new and significantly quicker drug development path for antiviral therapeutics, with resulting benefits that will reach far beyond the confines of biodefense, important though that is.
Professor Christopher Davis, Chief Scientist, CMO & Director of Biomedical Research for CUBRC, will serve as the CUBRC Program Director. Dr. Davis, an internationally recognized leader in the biodefense arena, with a background in drug research commented, “Working in close collaboration with Prosetta Corporation, the CUBRC-COE-Prosetta (or TriBioMed) Team will be able to harness a radical new approach to antiviral drug development which is based on a breakthrough in understanding the life cycle of viruses, to deliver safe, effective, novel broad-spectrum therapeutics for the treatment of three hemorrhagic fever viruses: Ebola, Rift Valley Fever Virus and Lassa Fever Virus, and all the other viruses in these families. Additionally, a key theme in our proposal was to showcase the talents of COE experts; specifically Professors Iain Hay and Troy Wood from UB’s Microbiology and Chemistry Departments, respectively.” Dr. Davis concluded, “However, this should not be construed as some exotic research program having little impact on the lives of the general population – nothing could be farther from the truth. The revolutionary aspect of our proposal is indeed, the promise to expeditiously develop new anti-viral drugs against any viral target, be it a human pathogen, animal pathogen or plant disease. Until now -- this has been an onerous process – measured in years or decades. Prosetta’s unique science, taken together with CUBRC’s and the COE’s capability to support the development and testing cycle, changes all the norms and opens a new era in antiviral therapeutic development. This in turn holds great promise for combating the normally developing and evolving viral agents that can threaten mass population centers.”
CUBRC, an independent not-for-profit corporation headquartered in Buffalo NY, executes Research, Development, Testing and Systems Integration initiatives in Medical Biotechnology, Chemical and Biological Defense, Information Fusion, Public Safety, International Security and Hypersonics.
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