GSK to award $500,000 in grants for new HIV/AIDS drugs research
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to award US$500,000 (€464,000) in grants for innovative HIV/AIDS drug research. The one-time research grants range from $25,000 (€23,280) to $150,000 (€139,000) and are intended to further the development of inventive treatments for HIV/AIDS, including: therapies aimed at treating infection; prophylactic vaccines; or microbicides designed to prevent transmission of the virus.
Applications must be submitted by 31 July and the results will be announced in September.
Since the inception of the Drug Discovery and Development Research Grant Programme in 2001, GSK has honoured nine researchers for their groundbreaking work toward new pharmaceutical strategies to combat the HIV virus. The research grant carries no obligation to the recipient's organisation for licensure, patenting or transfer of confidential information, although GSK may discuss the possibility of future collaboration with some applicants. The grants will be awarded by an expert review board composed of acknowledged leaders in the field of HIV/AIDS.
The research proposals will be considered according to their potential importance to the field and health in general, originality, appropriateness of the methodology and scope of the project, and the researchers' ability to conduct the proposed research.
'We've been very pleased with the diversity of the projects submitted, which have ranged from research on protein recognition to the molecular virology of HIV integration,' said Dr Doug Manion, vice president of clinical development for GSK.