Harrington Discovery Institute Announces Award Recipients in its COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative

Call for proposals yields one of world’s largest COVID-19 portfolios

CLEVELAND, June 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, in collaboration with Morgan Stanley GIFT (Global Impact Funding Trust) Cures, today announced 12 award winners in the COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative. These award recipients will receive grant funding and expert drug development support to advance novel therapies, next-generation vaccines and vaccine alternatives to fight COVID-19 and avert future pandemics. The winners were selected from among hundreds of applications submitted by physicians and scientists at 122 universities and health systems across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

The call for proposals is part of a major initiative to galvanize the institute’s transatlantic network of academic institutions, foundations, and philanthropic partners to rapidly respond to the global pandemic. In further action, Harrington Discovery Institute will seek to organize development of COVID-19 therapies derived from academia broadly, accelerate breakthrough treatments within its portfolio, and raise capital to resource this effort through Morgan Stanley GIFT Cures, its philanthropic partnership with Morgan Stanley.

“The response to the call for proposals has far exceeded our expectations. The quality of science and potential for clinical impact are truly remarkable. Frankly, there are probably 50 projects here that show promise to protect the nation and the world,” said Jonathan S. Stamler, MD, President, Harrington Discovery Institute, Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Innovation and Professor of Medicine at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University.

Four types of projects are represented in the portfolio:

• Novel therapies to prevent causes of Coronavirus mortality.
• Broad-spectrum antiviral therapies.
• Next generation vaccines and vaccine alternatives to avert pandemics.
• Emergency countermeasures/prophylaxis strategies for first responders and emergency medical personnel to be administered either once or short term.

“Our next step will be to build drug development teams around the awardees and to work with urgency to advance these treatments. We are hopeful that many of these novel therapies will be in clinical trials shortly,” stated Dr. Stamler.

The award recipients, their organizations and forms of therapy are:

Michael Barry, PhD – Mayo Clinic
Novel Vaccine Against COVID-19

Katherine Fitzgerald, PhD – University of Massachusetts
Fumarate Based Therapeutics and Clinical Trial for Lung Injury

Benjamin Gaston, MD – Indiana University
Novel Agent To Accelerate Ventilator Weaning for Patients With COVID-19 Lung Infection

Jeffrey Glenn, MD, PhD – Stanford University
Single Dose Antiviral Therapeutic for COVID-19

Anastasia Khvorova, PhD – University of Massachusetts
Multi-Virus Therapy for COVID-19 and Other Pandemic-Causing Viruses

Yulia Komarova, PhD – University of Illinois
Novel Therapy for Acute Respiratory Distress

Anne Moscona, MD – Columbia University
Intranasal Agent to Block COVID-19 Infection

Michel Nussenzweig, MD, PhD – The Rockefeller University
Human Antibodies to Prevent and Treat COVID-19

James Reynolds, PhD – University Hospitals Cleveland /Case Western Reserve University
First Multipurpose Drug to Improve Lung and Heart Function in COVID-19 Patients

Joseph Vinetz, MD – Yale University
Antiviral Clinical Effects of Camostat Mesylate in Early COVID-19+ Outpatients

James Wells, PhD – University of California, San Francisco
Novel Multi-Target Antibodies for COVID-19 Infection

James Wilson, MD, PhD – University of Pennsylvania
Novel Intranasal Vaccine Alternative for COVID-19 Prophylaxis

Since its founding in 2012, Harrington Discovery Institute has supported more than 120 drugs-in-the-making from 54 institutions and has expanded its model into Canada and the United Kingdom.

About Harrington Discovery Institute
The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, OH—part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development—aims to advance medicine and society by enabling our nation’s most inventive scientists to turn their discoveries into medicines that improve human health. The institute was created in 2012 with a $50 million founding gift from the Harrington family and instantiates the commitment they share with University Hospitals to a Vision for a ‘Better World’. For more information, visit: HarringtonDiscovery.org.

About Morgan Stanley GIFT Cures
Morgan Stanley GIFT Cures powered by Harrington Discovery Institute offers philanthropists the unique funding opportunity to bridge the gap in the valley of death and greatly impact the development of cures.

By supporting the world’s most promising research, philanthropists can directly advance Harrington Discovery Institute’s portfolio of hundreds of breakthrough discoveries that are being de-risked and developed into novel therapies for patients suffering from chronic and rare diseases. For more information, visit: MSGIFTCures.donorgift.org.

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SOURCE Harrington Discovery Institute