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Medicine in Need receives $8.3 million grant from Gates Foundation to apply advanced biomaterial science to three major vaccine and drug challenges in global health today.
CAMBRIDGE (November 6, 2007) – Medicine in Need (MEND) announced today that it is receiving an $8.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to apply advanced biomaterial science to address three major vaccine and drug challenges to improving global health today.
MEND is a non-profit vaccine and drug delivery technology platform corporation, combining proprietary compound formulations with low-cost, high-throughput spray drying technologies to turn existing, proven injectable drugs and vaccines into dry powders - enabling effective, safe treatment delivery via pulmonary, oral and injectable routes.
Biomaterial science and engineering play central roles in the bio-pharmaceutical industry. It is estimated that 20%, or 104 billion USD of 2005 worldwide drug and vaccine sales can be attributed to material science and engineering formulations. These formulations include novel delivery technologies such as, pulmonary, nasal, transdermal, routes of delivery, as well as novel stabilization technologies for small and large molecules, and novel device and packaging technologies.
“In the effort to develop new drugs and vaccines for diseases afflicting developing world countries, the need for biomaterial science and engineering to overcome delivery challenges appears even greater than in the developed world,” says international bioethics expert Peter A.Singer of the Mclauglin Rotman Centre for Global Health in Toronto.
Considering the principal infectious diseases that beset low income nations, MEND has and will continue to identify a number of likely near-term opportunities for new drug and vaccine interventions that have the potential to significantly lower the infectious disease burden.
The grant focuses on three objectives:
- Evaluating and selecting several current pre-clinical and clinical drug and vaccine candidates for diseases afflicting the poorest populations of the world which could benefit from of state-of-art drug and vaccine delivery technologies
- Evaluating and applying, (in partnership with the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation) Mend’s vaccine spray drying technology as a potential replacement for the lyophilization (freeze-drying) step in the industrial manufacturing of TB vaccines
- Testing in a phase I human clinical trial the safety of an inhaled form of capreomycin, a second line TB drug currently used in multi drug resistant TB treatments
“We are very grateful for the support that the Gates Foundation is providing to MEND. This allows us to build on the excellent progress made in the laboratory by our founder, Harvard Professor and Grand Challenges in Global Health grant recipient David Edwards and his collaborators, toward developing inhaled TB vaccine and drug treatments,” said Michael Lytton, Oxford Bioscience Partner and MEND board member.
As part of the grant, MEND also announced today the appointment of Andrew Schiermeier, PhD, MBA as Chief Executive Officer.
“We are extremely pleased that Andrew has decided to join the organization,” said MEND board member Alan Crane, Polaris Venture Partner and CEO of Tempo Pharmaceuticals. “His impressive range of knowledge, skills, and experience in biopharmaceutical operations will be a great help as we execute on our mission.”
Dr. Schiermeier was until recently CEO of Lantibio, Inc, a private, development-stage bio-pharmaceutical company focused on therapies for respiratory and ophthalmic indications. Previous to that, he was Vice President of Business Strategy for Paramount BioSciences, an integrated unique drug development firm and life sciences merchant bank, where he helped generate more than half-a-dozen of Paramount’s portfolio companies. Previous to Paramount, Dr. Schiermeier worked as a management consultant in the pharmaceutical industry for more than a decade, including leadership roles in the firms of Ernst & Young and Strategic Decisions Group. In addition, he served as Senior Director and Global Head of Portfolio Management for Aventis Pharmaceuticals from 1999-2002. Dr. Schiermeier earned a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, an M.S. in BioMechanics from Stanford University, and an International M.B.A. from College des Ingenieurs in Paris, France.
About Medicine in Need (MEND)
MEND (www.medicineinneed.org) is an international nonprofit organization developing innovative technologies and products to prevent and treat diseases of poverty in the developing world. MEND translates to clinical practice inventions from the Harvard School of Engineering laboratory of its scientific founder, Professor David Edwards. MEND is headquartered in Cambridge, MA and has offices in Paris, France and Pretoria, South Africa.