Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory at The Mount Sinai Medical Center receives Octapharma grant

Jan 20 2011

Octapharma USA today announced the second grant recipient of the Octapharma 25th Anniversary Grants Program is the Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. The Octapharma Grants program supports clinical or pre-clinical research focused on human protein therapies in hematology, immune therapy, intensive care and emergency medicine.

Charlotte Cunningham-Rundles, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Allergy Immunology and the Immunology Training Program and Director of the Immunodeficiency Clinic at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, is the lead investigator for a research project focused on distinguishing true Common Variable Immune Deficiencies (CVID) from disorders with more modest immune defects. Dr. Cunningham-Rundles has nearly 30 years experience with clinical immune deficiency disorders with a research focus of human immunodeficiency diseases and immuno-reconstitution.

Octapharma AG, one of the largest human protein products manufacturers in the world, launched the Octapharma Grants program last year in celebration of the biopharmaceutical company's 25th anniversary. The company's first ever grants program is only available to researchers based in the United States and is administered by Octapharma USA, the Swiss company's U.S. subsidiary.

"It is a pleasure to announce Octapharma's support for the valuable research being pursued by the Clinical Immunology Research group at The Mount Sinai Medical Center," said Octapharma USA President Flemming Nielsen. "Dr. Cunningham-Rundles is a well-recognized national leader in the field of clinical and laboratory immunology and we consider her research extremely important in understanding how to best diagnose and treat primary immune deficiency earlier and more effectively. The grant program and its second award will continue to advance Octapharma's firm commitment to the U.S. market, underscoring our commitment to provide patients with the safest, highest quality therapies available today."

CVID is a primary immune defect characterized by poor or absent production of immune globulins IgG, IgA and/or IgM. CVID is a type of primary immune deficiency disease with high clinical interest due to its prevalence, severity of complications, rate of hospitalizations and necessity for lifelong immune globulin therapy.  Unfortunately, using the available published criteria for diagnosing CVID, physicians have difficulty distinguishing this disease from milder immune defects of antibody production.  The difficulty of distinguishing between patient groups is medically important as subjects with validated CVID appear more likely to develop selected inflammatory complications which may require additional monitoring or treatment. Patients with more modest defects may be more exempt from these issues and could require different clinical surveillance.

"The aim of our research is to provide the medical community and patients with information and tools to distinguish the more clear cases of CVID from other milder antibody disorders," said Dr. Cunningham-Rundles. "By reviewing and analyzing clinical records and available laboratory data, we will work toward the development of a scoring system as a clinical tool.  With the large cohort of patients seen at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, the study may be able to determine if the immunologic and clinical differences seen in various defects can be distinguished."

The Octapharma Grants Committee has officially closed the second cycle of 2010 grant applications and has opened the first cycle for 2011 applications.  The deadline for the next cycle of 2011 submissions is March 31. Please visit www.octapharmagrants.com for a complete description of the grants program.

SOURCE Octapharma USA