Working against an Oct. 1 deadline to secure funding, University of Arizona officials say that they have drummed up the remainder of the needed $7.5 million in local support to keep Tucson as the prospective home of a future drug development institute. The announcement comes after a frantic, month-long push to gather enough funding over five years to launch the group, affiliated with the Food and Drug Administration, in Southern Arizona.

The proposed Institute for Global Pharmaceutical Development, a collaboration among the FDA, UA, and SRI, a nonprofit development company, would research ways of speeding drugs to market. Partners of the proposed institute made Tucson their first choice in location, in part because of the strong reputation of the University's College of Pharmacy and the presence of Dr. Raymond Woosley, UA's vice president of health sciences who has close ties to the FDA.

The three prospective partners in the institute--UA, FDA, and SRI--have put forth $2.5 million each to jumpstart the first five years; officials hope that after that initial upstart phase, the institute will sustain itself with federal grants, UA tuition, and additional FDA funds.

The sticking point was coming up with an additional $1.5 million per year; otherwise, the FDA would have shopped the plan to other cities, with which Tucson would have had difficulty competing.

But with the commitment of twin sums of $375,000 annually by both Tucson city managers and Pima County administrators, the Institute planners in Tucson met their funding target. Joined by acting deputy commissioner Janet Woodcock, Woosley, UA associate vice president of economic development Bruce Wright, and city and county officials met over the weekend to review the support netted and outline development plans.

According to the Arizona Daily Star, the city and the county must still vote to approve the funding in upcoming meetings, and officials involved are interested in ways to measure performance and contingents that could guarantee a local economic boost.

"I think we've passed the test, provided the city and county come through with their portion of the funding," Wright told the Star.

Gov. Janet Napolitano joined the conversation, too, when potential state capital funding was discussed. According to the Star, that could be anywhere from $25 million to $30 million.

The next step is to write a memorandum of understanding and garner approval from the Arizona Board of Regents; both tasks are slated for completion in January.

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For more information:

"UA bags $7.5M for local drug institute," Arizona Daily Star, 10/06/2004

"GTEC reaches goal for global research center," Inside Tucson Business, 10/04/2004

"UA, Tucson seek $7.5M to secure drug-development institute," 08/20/2004