BioScience Awards Midwest (BAM) raises funds for Repurposing, honors leaders creating patient impact

SKOKIE, Ill. - June 4, 2015 - PRLog -- Over 300 people supported and attended the BAM event at the Spertus Institute of Chicago’s VenueSIX10, raising more than $150,000 in support of the Cures Within Reach mission to improve patient quality and length of life through repurposing research, creating new treatments using existing drugs and devices.  This event also served as a launch party for CureAccelerator,  the world’s first online, interactive platform dedicated to repurposing research, platform built through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  The platform’s goal is to connect researchers, funders, clinicians, the biomedical industry and patient groups to drive more treatments to more patients more quickly.

BAM has become a premier event for the life science community in Chicago and throughout the Midwest, with high level networking opportunities and inspirational personal stories from the honorees and Cures Within Reach.  Designed to honor the patient impact created by leaders working in business, science and philanthropy, the awards this year were given to three amazing individuals:

o      Patient Impact Legacy Award:  Dr. Richard DiMarchi, a brilliant scientist and businessman, who spent over 2 decades at Eli Lilly, and is credited with the development of Humalog. He has gone on to found 4 biotech companies, and is currently Cox Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences at Indiana University.

o      Janet Davison Rowley Patient Impact Research Award:  Dr. S. Vincent Rajukmar, Edward W. and Betty Knight Scripps Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and chair of the Mayo Clinic’s Myeloma, Amyloidosis, and Dysproteinemia Group.  Honored here for his role leading a pivotal trial that led to the approval of thalidomide in myeloma in the United States.

o      Golan & Christie Patient Impact Philanthropy Award:  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Director Lori Melichar accepting.  Ms. Melichar is a director at the Foundation where she focuses on discovering, exploring and learning from cutting edge ideas with the potential to help create a Culture of Health. She is also the host of the Foundation’s Pioneering Ideas podcast.  Due to weather, Ms. Melichar’s flight from the East coast was cancelled, and she prepared an inspiring audiovisual presentation to be delivered in her absence.

Serving as co-chairs of the event were Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria of New Generation Power, and James Robinson, President of Astellas Pharma US, Inc. “I’m honored that Astellas was the presenting sponsor and I was able to serve as the co-chair of the BioScience Awards Midwest event to honor the extraordinary scientific, business and philanthropic accomplishments of the award winners and raise funds to support the world’s first online, interactive platform dedicated to repurposing research," said James Robinson. “It was powerful to see the impact that local scholars and industry have made to support patient needs and the continued growth of the biotech community throughout the Midwest.”

Astellas Pharma US, Inc. was the presenting dinner sponsor for BAM 2015, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals and PwC stepped in as presenting reception sponsors.  Additional sponsorship was provided by Accenture, Assembly BioSciences, Beecken Petty O’Keefe and Company, Crealta Pharmaceuticals, IL Science+Technology Park, Horizon Pharma plc, Hulow LLC, Lilly, Naurex, Inc., and many others.

Plans for the 2016 BAM event will be announced later on this year.

ABOUT CURES WITHIN REACH

Cures Within Reach is the only disease agnostic philanthropic organization exclusively committed to Repurposing Research as a fast-track to saving patient lives.

Cures Within Reach medical research projects have generated 12 repurposing treatments making an impact in the following diseases through off-label use in clinical practice or through a commercialization track: autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome, familial dysautonomia, Types 1 and 2 diabetes, lung cancer, multiple sclerosis, prostate cancer, myelodysplastic syndrome, and 4 additional pediatric auto-immune diseases.

Cures will use CureAccelerator and other initiatives to develop new financial engines to underwrite the repurposing research that can deliver effective repurposed treatments to patients. Visit us at www.cureswithinreach.org or follow us via:

Twitter www.twitter.com/CuresWReach

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