Regenerative Medicine Institute Seeks to Attract Private Investors
With piecemeal public and private funding and $80 million of its own
money, the Defense Department last month launched the Armed Forces
Institute of Regenerative Medicine. The effort will comprise seven of
America's 10 foremost thinkers in the field, and has an overall
budget of $250 million over the next five years.
(PressZoom) - WASHINGTON, May 2, 2008 – If a new regenerative
medicine venture proves successful, it could increase investors'
confidence in backing the cutting-edge technology, a senior military
official said today.
With piecemeal public and private funding and $80 million of its own
money, the Defense Department last month launched the Armed Forces
Institute of Regenerative Medicine. The effort will comprise seven of
America's 10 foremost thinkers in the field, and has an overall
budget of $250 million over the next five years.
Harnessing stem cell research and technology, the initiative in part
will aim to find innovative ways to use an injured servicemember'
natural cellular structure to reconstruct new skin, muscles and
tendons, and even ears, noses and fingers.
But asked if the quarter-billion funding is sufficient, Army Col.
Robert Vandre said, "I don't think we have quite enough money yet."
Vandre, the research area director for Combat Casualty Care Research
at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, estimates
current funding will subsidize early clinical trials of the
sophisticated medical science.
But to achieve a mission that includes using human stem cells to re-
grow an entire limb, Vandre, in a conference call today, said the
newly established institute will need additional support.
The key to tapping into private funding is slicing investors' fears
about the future of the sophisticated medical science, some of which
sounds almost like "science fiction," said Vandre. "Industry always
worries about risk," he added.
"If something's a sure-thing, then they're going to pull out their
wallets and they're going to do it," Vandre said. "Now we have to get
enough risk out of the way so that they'll [invest]."
The colonel pointed out the potential returns investors could reap if
one of the regenerative projects proves successful.
"If we could do healing without scarring, can you imagine how much
money that would be worth?" he said. "If we can come up with
something that looks even close, that will be bought immediately and
they'll pay for the clinical trials."
Vandre praised the Defense Department for increasing the amount of
funding it's provided in the past for regenerative medicine
exploration.
"I don't think we have quite enough money yet, but compared to what
they've spent in the past, this is a huge amount of money," he said.
The National Institute of Health, in Bethesda, Md., the Department of
Veterans Affairs, and local public and private matching funding are
providing the remainder of the budget. Also supporting the initiative
from academia are Rutgers University in New Jersey, Wake Forest
University in North Carolina, and the University of Pittsburgh.
Vandre pointed out that the seven preeminent scientists participating
in the effort are contributing about $100 million that already has
been provided to them by National Institute of Health for similar
research. "So it's really a hodgepodge of funding agencies," he
added.
AFIRM will fall under the auspices of the U.S. Army Medical Research
and Material Command, based on Fort Detrick, Md., and it also will
work in conjunction with U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in
San Antonio.
The Medical Research and Material Command is the Army's lead medical
research, development and related-material acquisition agency. It
comes under U.S. Army Medical Command, which is led by Lt. Gen. (
Dr. ) Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general.
Schoomaker called the future of regenerative medicine "truly amazing"
during an April 17 news conference at the Pentagon announcing the
start of AFIRM. "We're embarking on a new generation of research
that's going to redefine Army and military medicine as we know it
today," he said.
http://presszoom.
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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