Hawaii Biotech lands $5.6M research grant
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawaii Biotech yesterday said it received a $5.6 million grant to develop a drug to treat people exposed to anthrax and botulism during terrorist attacks.
Hawaii Biotech's grant, which is among the largest of its kind nationwide, will help build credibility for the biotech industry in Hawai'i, said Edwin Cadman, dean of the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine. The university is building a $150 million medical school in Kaka'ako, which it hopes will be a core of biotech research in Hawai'i.
"Mainland investors are looking at these companies and when they see a $5.6 million grant, that's been peer-reviewed from scientists on the Mainland, then that gives recognition that we're doing something in Hawai'i," Cadman said.
The new money coupled with a $4.4 million award in May from the Department of Defense, gives Hawaii Biotech $10 million to pay for research into bioterrorism agents. The latest grant from the National Institutes for Health runs through February 2007 and will result in five additional research jobs for the 'Aiea-based company, said David Watumull, president and chief executive of Hawaii Biotech.
"It's a substantial amount of money," Watumull said. "If we didn't get this grant, it would be very difficult to raise the money to do this research."
The goal of the project is to develop a drug to inhibit the lethal toxin secreted by anthrax bacteria. If successful, it's hoped such inhibitor compounds will not only treat other bioterrorism agents such as botulinum/A, but common diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis, Watumull said.
"You can't predict the amount of time it will take" to develop a treatment for anthrax, he said. "But I'm real confident we can find a solution.
"We are part of the way there now."
Hawaii Biotech is also researching a variety of antidotes including vaccines for the West Nile virus and dengue fever. The company is part of a small, but growing biotech industry in Hawai'i, which includes companies such as Honolulu-based Hoana Medical and Tissue Genesis.
Last month Hawaii Biotech's research into the structure of the dengue virus was featured on the cover of the science journal Nature. The privately held Hawaii Biotech was founded in 1982 by nine University of Hawai'i professors.
The article in Nature is among the biggest splashes for local research since 1998, when work on cloned mice by Ryuzo Yanagimachi and others at UH resulted in three articles in Nature.
Reach Sean Hao at 525-8093 or shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.
