Issue 2  Volume 2 August 29, 2005

 

Coping with Complexity

 

Pharmaceutical compounds are getting larger and more complicated. Boehringer-Ingelheim's R&D shop in Richmond figures out how to process them more efficiently.

 

 

by Peter Galuszka

 

On the third floor of the Biotech One building at the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond, Va., Dr. Jack Brown skims over the screen of his desktop computer. He’s illustrating a point crucial to the pharmaceutical industry and, in particular, to his company, the German firm of Boehringer-Ingelheim, the 14th largest drug maker in the world.

New drugs are becoming more complicated and difficult to mass produce. By way of comparison, Brown nods at the screen showing the chemical formula for AZT, a pioneering drug introduced in the early 1990s to fight the alarming and then relatively new AIDS virus. AZT was considered a major advance at the time, and its formula shows a series of rings typically associated with organic chemistry.

Next, he flips onto the formula for a newer drug, called a fusion inhibitor that was developed a decade later to prevent the AIDS virus from spreading by preventing it from linking with cells. Its much longer formula looks like a length of crochet, perhaps 15 times the size of the AZT formula. “This one has 109 chemical step processes while AZT has two,” he says.

Brown’s point is that the ever-growing complexity of new drugs is a big challenge for Boehringer-Ingelheim, a privately-held, family-owned company. The Virginia BioTechnology Research Park plays a major role in Boehringer’s drug making by helping the firm prepare its products for market in ways that are safe and cost-effective. The park houses several offices and laboratories for its chemical, pharmaceutical and veterinarian drug divisions. They help prepare new drugs for clinical trials and provide research and development services for Boehringer’s large production facilities in Petersburg. More.

Smokin'!

Philip Morris USA will build a $300 million research center in the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park.

The Virginia BioTechnology Research Park has announced that Philip Morris USA will begin construction on a new $300 million research and technology center in the Park’s downtown campus.

“This is a tremendous development for the greater Richmond region and the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park,” said Robert T. Skunda, president and CEO of the Park. “The new research center will help us further develop the critical mass that is necessary when growing and attracting the life sciences industry, and shows that we have truly become the ‘New East Coast Center for Biosciences’.”

The new facility will be Philip Morris USA’s largest capital project since the 1980s, and will be the single-largest private-capital investment in Richmond’s history. The main research complex will be on a site bounded by 5th and 7th streets just north of the Richmond Coliseum. Overall the facility will encompass about 450,000 square feet, nearly doubling the company’s research space, and be home to more than 500 scientists, engineers and support staff.

The center will be the newest addition to the BioTechnology Park, which already houses more than 50 life sciences companies in eight buildings, filling more than 575,000 square feet of space and employing more than 1,350 scientists, researchers, engineers and technicians in fields that include drug development, medical diagnostics, biomedical engineering, forensics and environmental analysis. (April 6, 2005) More. 

Tackling the Nursing Shortage

VCU Starts Construction on State-of-the-Art Nursing Education building.

Virginia Commonwealth University has started construction on a $17 million state-of-the-science School of Nursing education building.

The four-story building will be constructed on the university’s MCV Campus at Leigh and 11^th streets. It will include research space, a clinical learning center with human patient simulators, a community outreach nursing center, large classrooms and faculty offices.

At groundbreaking ceremonies, VCU President Eugene P. Trani, Ph. D., said that the school is more than bricks and mortar:

“The goal is that increased space and modern classrooms and facilities will be part of the solution to the nursing shortage and improving healthcare -- by educating more nurses who will enter the workforce as competent healthcare professionals.” (University News Service, June 14, 2005) More.

VCU Capital Campaign

Raises $82 Million

The university has achieved 85 percent of its 2007 goal to raise $330 million.

“For all age and sex groups, it is now very clear that brain volume and intelligence are related,” said lead researcher Michael A. McDaniel, Ph.D., an industrial and organizational psychologist who specializes in the study of intelligence and other predictors of job performance. (University News Service, June 17, 2005) More.

News

Business

Strauss Appointed Dean of Medical School. The VCU Board of Visitors has appointed Jerome F. Strauss III, as dean of the VCU School of Medicine, beginning Sept. 15. He comes from the University of Pennsyl- vania School of Medicine, where he has been associate chairman of the highly regarded Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. (June 14, 2005) More.

Neale Awarded $2.5 Million Grant Extension. Michael S. Neale, a psychiatry professor studying the influence of genetics on substance abuse, has won a $2.5 million contract extension on a project begun last year. The NIH’s MERIT award provides top research- ers more time to focus on research without the administrative burdens of preparing and submitting applications for award extensions. (June 13, 2005) More.

Jesse Wins Medical Award. Robert Jesse, director of the Acute Cardiac Care Program for the VCU Health System, has been given the Richard A. Kern award, which honors contributions to medicine within the federal sector. The award recognizes his work on transforming models for health care delivery in acute cardiac care in Veterans Affairs medical centers. (April 18, 2005) More.

Research