Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, granted the University at Buffalo's School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science $1 million for the expansion of the graduate and postdoctoral research regarding the advancement of treatment for diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
According to a press release, UB received this grant to provide the pharmaceutical science department with the resources to expand the research in the field of protein drugs. The research will mostly take place in the UB Center for Protein Therapeutics. The Center's team will be comprised of about five graduate and post-doctoral fellows.
According to professor William J. Jusko, chairman of pharmaceutical sciences, the development of the biotechnology arena is vital to the pharmaceutical industry.
"Many kinds of these drugs are monoclonal antibodies...and these agents are proving to be highly effective in treating these diseases," he said.
Joseph P. Balthasar, director of graduate studies and associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, heads UB's research involving protein drugs and their applications.
"It is anticipated that over the next five to 10 years, 50 percent of the new drugs approved by the FDA will be protein drugs," he said.
This program is not the first to use protein drugs to treat various diseases.
"There are many examples of successful protein drugs, including erythropoietin - used to stimulate the production of red blood cells in chronic renal failure, rituximab - used to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and trastuzumab - used to treat breast cancer," he said.
According to Balthasar, Novartis chose UB because of the University's excellent reputation in drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics research.
"Many of the 'founding fathers' of modern pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic research have been faculty members in the (pharmaceutical sciences) department," he said.
Novartis leads the pharmaceutical industry in United States' product approval. In addition to funding UB, the company holds other significant investments in research and development in areas such as oncology and neuroscience, and will increase their focus on biotechnology, according to the Novartis Web site.
The chairmen of the Center for Protein Therapeutics predict that UB will become the leader in the development and optimization of protein pharmaceuticals. They also anticipate that many other pharmaceutical companies will join Novartis in funding the department. When fully funded, the Center will support approximately 20 new graduate students, Balthasar said.
Although the research of these drugs is substantial, they have not yet perfected the usage of all protein drugs. According to Balthasar, although many of these drugs have proven to be effective, the first in-human dosage of some of these drugs had catastrophic side effects.
Improving the effectiveness of protein drugs and eliminating side effects is a major research effort of the department, Balthasar said.
"As a researcher within the Center, I will continue to work toward the development of improved methods to predict the safety and efficacy of antibody drugs, and my group will continue our efforts to develop new treatments for ovarian cancer and for humoral autoimmune diseases," he said.
The Center will also address other issues such as improving the stability, shelf life and the need for parenteral administration, which is a technique that involves injecting drugs into compartments of the body rather than using the body's natural transport system, according to the University of Iowa's Web site. They will also work to lower the cost of these drugs, which are currently very expensive.
Photo: Courtesy of SUNY
