| Bristol-Myers
Squibb Awards $5.6 Million in Unrestricted Grants
Bristol-Myers
Squibb (NYSE: BMY) recently hosted the “Freedom to Discover” awards
ceremony, an event-recognizing scientists who have made significant
contributions to biomedical research. The event, held at the
Museum of Natural History, also recognized 12 institutions
and principle investigators who this year have received grants
from Bristol-Myers Squibb totaling $5.6 million, and six leading
U.S. biomedical researchers who each received a $50,000 cash
prize award for distinguished achievement in their fields.
This year’s event also featured a special symposium, in which
some of the world’s leading research scientists participated
in a panel discussion about “The Future of Medicine.”
“It
is appropriate that we are holding a symposium about the future
of medicine at the same time we honor these researchers,” said
Peter R. Dolan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bristol-Myers
Squibb. “For most of their careers, these award winners—and
those who have come before them—have been searching for answers
that have profound implications for human health and welfare.
Today’s grant recipients have the tools to seek solutions to
some of medical science’s most vexing problems, without having
to create burdensome grant proposals or deal with massive administrative
details. These grant recipients seek to improve the possibilities
for the health and well-being of people everywhere.”
Bristol-Myers
Squibb’s landmark biomedical research awards and grants program
is the world’s largest industry source of no-strings-attached
grants. Since the program’s inception in 1977, more than $100
million has been committed through 240 grants to more than
150 institutions in 23 countries. Sixteen Nobel laureates are
among the recipients.
Bristol-Myers
Squibb awards unrestricted research grants in six areas: cancer,
cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases, metabolics, neuroscience
and nutrition. In each area, up to two $500,000, five-year
grants are awarded each year, except nutrition, in which up
to two $300,000, three-year grants are awarded annually. The
total amount awarded each year is $5.6 million. All of these
grants carry no restrictions or conditions and directly support
the researchers and their labs.
Each
year, Bristol-Myers Squibb also presents six awards for distinguished
achievement to individual researchers—one for each of the six
areas covered by the Unrestricted Biomedical Research Grants
Program. Independent peer review committees, comprised of the
principal investigators of Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted
Research Grants, evaluate nominees and select the Distinguished
Achievement Award recipients.
The
award winners have pioneered efforts and made critical discoveries
leading to important new therapies, and have greatly expanded
vital areas of research in vascular biology; genetic regulation
of cell differentiation; bacterial toxins, including anthrax;
micronutrients; cancer cell growth; and the transmission of
information throughout the nervous system.
This
year, for the first time, the two related Bristol-Myers Squibb
programs, the Unrestricted Research Grant program and the Distinguished
Achievement Awards, were combined under one name—The Bristol-Myers
Squibb Freedom To Discover Unrestricted Biomedical Research
Grants and Awards Program—and celebrated at one award event.
“‘Freedom
To Discover’ best characterizes what this program supports:
unfettered freedom to explore the uncharted territory of biomedical
science in any way the researcher sees fit,” Mr. Dolan explains.
The
goals of the Freedom To Discover program are clear, according
to James B.D. Palmer, M.D., F.R.C.P., president of the Bristol-Myers
Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute: “We need to discover,
from a basic science, applied technology and social perspective,
what’s standing in the way of achieving the promise and potential
of medicine in this new century. To do that, we must support
unfettered research, uncompromising science, and a continued
quest for understanding the mechanisms of disease.”#
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