WASHINGTON and AIEA, Hawaii, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Aiea-based Hawaii Biotech Inc has won its third Tibbetts Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration. In doing so it has become Hawaii's first three-time recipient honoring achievements by small businesses in innovation and research. Dr. Leonard Firestone, CEO of Hawaii biotech, will receive the award on behalf of the company on Sept. 26 at the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Awards Ceremony to be held at Wyndham Washington, located at 1400 M Street NW in Washington, D.C.
Named for Roland Tibbetts -- the founder of the SBIR program -- these prestigious, national awards are made annually to those small firms, projects, organizations and individuals judged to exemplify the very best in scientific innovation and community impact.
Hawaii Biotech, Inc., the State of Hawaii's leading private biotechnology company, has gained worldwide recognition as a leader in the development of vaccines to protect from emerging infectious disease. These include seasonal and avian (pandemic) Influenza, West Nile encephalitis, and Dengue Fever. Hawaii Biotech's proprietary manufacturing platform, which exploits recombinant DNA technology to produce commercially scaleable, ultra-high quality vaccine components, is uniquely suited to produce vaccines in the quantities and timeframe needed to protect human populations.
Dr. Firestone stated, "Without our world class scientists, the leadership of the Hawaii Science & Technology Council and the exceptional support of Hawaii legislators, including Senator Robert Bunda, Senator Carol Fukunaga, Representative Calvin Say, and Representative Jon Riki Karamatsu, we would never have received this honor."
About Hawaii Biotech's Vaccine Business
Hawaii Biotech's vaccine development platform is based on production of proprietary antigens (proteins) that, when appropriately adjuvanted, provoke immune responses equivalent to, or better than, traditional live or inactivated viral vaccines -- with a significantly improved safety profile. During the past 3 years, Hawaii Biotech received funding commitments of over US$30 million from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and other governmental agencies, to develop vaccines to prevent human infection by the West Nile virus, Dengue Fever virus, pandemic and annual Influenza viruses, and other serious incurable diseases including malaria, Tick-borne and Japanese encephalitis, Ebola, and Eastern equine encephalitis.
Hawaii Biotech IncCONTACT: Robert F. Kay, +1-808-732-0631, rkay@lava.net, for Hawaii Biotech
Web site: http://www.hibiotech.com/
