Center designed for advanced drug research

By Shayna Strang, staff writer
Posted on November 15, 2007

With the system used today across the country, it takes anywhere between eight and ten years and over a half billion dollars to develop a drug and gain FDA approval.

Last December, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced the creation of a new Center for Advanced Drug Research (CADRE) in Rockingham County. Keith Boswell, team leader for Security and Services for the VEDP, hopes researchers will be able to use this facility to cut down on the time and money used in the process.

California-based research institute, SRI International, combined with Rockingham County, the city of Harrisonburg, the Virginia Economic Development Program, JMU and other institutions in Virginia to support this opportunity.

“This project is absolutely one of those that doesn’t happen very often,” Boswell said. “I don’t know if it’ll ever happen again.”

To get the project started, Rockingham County put almost $17 million worth of bonds towards the construction of the facility. The Commonwealth of Virginia then committed to fund $22 million over a period of 7 years to help get the center started.

“SRI liked Virginia, Virginia liked SRI, and we found a way to make it work,” Boswell said.

Located just north of the city limits, the center will be part of the Rockingham Center for Research and Technology.

“It was strategically located to the nation’s capital and the Federal Drug Administration,” Boswell said.

This will be done through the work of executive director Krishna Kodukula and several researchers at the center. A number that is expected to grow to about 100 in the next five years, the CEO of the Shenandoah Valley Partnership Robin Sullenberger said.

At the center, they will focus on the creation of new diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for infectious and neglected diseases and for biodefense, according to the Web site.

“The idea is to create an environment in the valley that will have a variety of high-technology programs,” Sullenberger said. “People will see the Shendandoah Valley as a wonderful place for collaborative efforts.”

With the development of the new center, the organizations involved hope to see other companies follow SRI to the area and create spin off opportunities throughout the state.

“We hope to see growth that will evolve out of the SRI facility,” Sullenberger said.

The center is estimated to be completed in mid-2009, but SRI has already begun operating on JMU’s campus, with offices and labs set up in Burruss Hall until construction is finished.

“JMU was interested because SRI’s research and development strategies and JMU’s focus areas were almost an identical match,” Sullenberger said.

This mutually beneficial relationship will help give JMU the research opportunities it hasn’t seen when compared to other Virginia universities, according to Boswell.

“It will really be a tremendous catalyst for the economic state of the area,” he said.