C-Path gets $9 million to boost its drugs work

Nov. 14, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- The Tucson-based Critical Path Institute has been awarded a $9 million grant from Science Foundation Arizona to boost the institute's mission of improving the drug development process.

C-Path, a non-profit partnership of the University of Arizona and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said the grant will support programs aimed at accelerating development of therapies for major diseases including lung cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

C-Path already has formed drug-industry collaborations to study drug safety and patient-reporting on drug outcomes.

"This funding will allow us to create new consortia that will focus on major diseases, starting with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," C-Path President and CEO Dr. Raymond Woosley said.

Woosley said C-Path is working with major drugmakers to create the planned Consortium on Major Diseases, which should be finalized early next year.

The grant comes on the heels of a $2 million grant from the foundation, known as SFAz, to help C-Path create a standard-setting body to evaluate the performance of diagnostic medical tests before their submission to the FDA. SFAz is an investment partnership established with state and public funding in 2006.

C-Path was formed as part of the FDA's 2004 Critical Path Initiative that called for safer and more rapid U.S. medical product development.

C-Path said it has formed partnerships that include nearly all the major drug corporations in the U.S. and Europe to study ways to speed development and share information on testing.

Three of the 18 companies that C-Path is working with -- Roche's Ventana Medical Systems, Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY) and Merck (NYSE:MRK) (through its affiliation with Tucson's High Throughput Genomics) -- now have major research facilities in Southern Arizona.

Bill Harris, president and CEO of SFAz, said C-Path's initiatives have the potential to boost the state's biomedical industry with innovation, spin-off companies and a growing base of skilled biotech workers.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0014-29567492