Press Releases & Media Coverage

Powerful New Cooperative Research Model Possible at Independent Research Institutes

WATERTOWN, Mass. – April 11, 2008 -“Drug makers turning to nonprofits for cash,” [Wallack, Todd, Boston Globe, April 7, 2008, Section C] detailed the partnership between biotech/pharmaceutical companies and private foundations to search for cures.  Missing was the role that patients have in bringing these vital partnerships into being with advocacy and start-up funds.  Patient involvement in the therapeutic development pipeline is equally important as basic, translational, and clinical research efforts.

A more powerful collaboration would encompass patient advocacy groups, independent research institutes and federal funding sources.  Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI), a nonprofit research center, embraces this new patient-involvement model in its work on facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD)--a crippling disease that gradually destroys all skeletal muscles and is the second most prevalent adult dystrophy.  BBRI and the FSH Society, a nonprofit grassroots patient organization, are working with two Massachusetts-based companies and several world-renowned clinical researchers to create a center for developing treatments.  Together, we have applied to National Institutes of Health (NIH) for funding as a Senator Paul Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center.

This new paradigm accelerates therapeutics for dystrophy.  Now, independent research institutes, with NIH input and funding, can harness the power of the cooperative research model and integrate patients fully into research, trials and drug development.

Daniel P. Perez
President and CEO
FSH Society

Charles P. Emerson, Jr., Ph.D.
Director and Senior Scientist
Boston Biomedical Research Institute

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BBRI Sustains Important Baa3 Bond Rating

WATERTOWN, Mass. – March 25, 2008 - Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) in Watertown, Massachusetts, was once again given a Baa3 bond rating with a stable outlook by Moody’s Investor Services, affirming the Institute’s financial stability in an era of declining NIH funding within an overall precarious economy that have left some similar organizations struggling to survive. “We are pleased with this confirmation of our financial health,” says BBRI Director and Senior Staff Scientist Charlie Emerson, who adds that the Institute’s research efforts continue to be robust and growing.

Boston Biomedical Research Institute is an independent, non-profit research institution devoted to increasing understanding of the causes, prevention and treatment of such diseases as heart disease, cancer, muscular dystrophy and Alzheimer's. Researchers at BBRI look at theses diseases at the biochemical and cellular level to unravel the mysteries of these diseases at their most rudimentary.

Moody’s Investor Services, which is one of the two foremost credit rating organizations in the US, reported that: “The stable outlook reflects our expectation that BBRI's management is focused on containment of operating expenses and generation of new revenue streams in light of slowed federal research funding. We believe that the Institute's largely unrestricted financial resource base provides a good cushion for near-term operating pressure.”  The report added that “…debt service reserve fund, security interest in gross receipts, and the first mortgage on the research facility provide some additional bondholder security.”

According to Dr. Emerson, “Our commitment to diversify our streams of revenue is reflected in the hiring of a new director of advancement and in our decision to enhance board support, increase submissions to private foundations, increase planned giving, and pursue potential state funding, as possible supplemental funding resources.”

Among the Institute’s scientific breakthroughs have been research that paved the way for the Troponin Assay, one of the standard tests now used by physicians to determine whether a person is having a heart attack and Hyaluronan, essential for eye surgeries and widely used in the treatment of osteoarthritis.  Hyaluronan, a carbohydrate polymer that can be injected directly into osteoarthritic joints, may help augment the joint’s natural fluids, increasing mobility and shock absorbency.

Founded in 1968, Boston Biomedical Research Institute is a not-for-profit basic research institute dedicated to the understanding, treatment and prevention of a wide range of human diseases and conditions. For more information visit www.bbri.org.

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