Federal Small Business Award Funds Research, Development in Center for Drug Discovery
Posted in GUMC Stories
The Georgetown University Center for Drug Discovery (CDD) and Bethesda Pharmaceuticals in Rockville, Md., have received a small business innovation research program (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health.
According to the Small Business Administration, which enables the program, the SBIR is “a competitive program that encourages small business to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization.”
Awarded to Bethesda Pharmaceuticals, the SBIR phase I support grant is funding the startup phase for the collaborative development of a small molecule with potential to become a therapeutic agent for patients treated surgically for thyroid cancer.
The work is underway in collaboration with Georgetown’s CCD, a translational medicine center, under the direction of Milton L. Brown, MD, PhD. The CCD comprises members from various disciplines collaborating in drug discovery, and in the development of a pipeline of new therapeutics for treating cancer, neurological, cardiovascular and infectious diseases. The CCD offers the full continuum of research collaboration and expertise from drug discovery through pre-clinical studies and clinical trials, and is supported by a prestigious chemical diversity center grant from the National Cancer Institute.
“SBIR funding is critical in fostering partnerships between academic institutions such as Georgetown and biotech companies,” says Brown. “This award represents a straightforward way of driving innovation and technology in the early marketplace that will have benefit for human health.”
By Karen Mallet, GUMC Communications