The University of Iowa is taking steps toward creating a new institute devoted to developing cancer-fighting drugs. The institute, abbreviated as CANDID, would focus on accelerating new drug development from the lab to early clinical trials. Kevin Kregel (KREE-guhl), the U-I’s executive vice president and provost, says it would be a partnership between the pharmacy school and the university’s cancer center.
CANDID is short for the Institute for Cancer Drug Discovery and Development. Kregel says the project’s focus on seeing new drugs through to the early clinical trial stage will set it apart nationally, plus, he says the institute will help train the next generation of people working in cancer drug development.
The Iowa Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s three public universities, made the initial moves toward approving the project this week. Kregel says the center will need one-point-five million dollars to get started its first year, and another million every year after that. He predicts the institute will receive money from industry partnerships, grants and other sources to help sustain it.
