Spokane Group banking on biotech payoff

Initiative aims to bring more medical research money into
Spokane region

Dr. Harold Mielke
envisions applied
medical research
as the key to
prosperity in the
Spokane region.

Carla K. Johnson
Spokesman Review Staff writer

"In five years,
you’ll see a nice
batch of young
biotech
companies based
on the science
created in this community," Mielke said. "We as
scientists would insist an idea created in this
community has to stay in this community."

Mielke, a researcher at Washington State University
at Spokane, speaks from experience.

Before coming to Spokane in 1990, Mielke helped
start five biotech companies in the San Francisco
area, including one that produced an HIV diagnostic
kit. Mielke now directs the Health Research and
Education Center at WSU Spokane.

Mielke is a driving force behind what’s being called
the Medical Research Institute initiative, a
collaborative effort by leaders in hospitals,
businesses and higher education to bring more
research money to Spokane.

Medical research is a multibillion-dollar industry. The
National Institutes of Health will grant $16 billion this
year for research. Spokane, a medical hub where
hospitals are the top private employer, wants a piece.

Organizers plan to ask Congress for $5.5 million over
three years, part of which would be used to hire three
to five senior clinical researchers.

There are 400 to 500 research studies ongoing in
Spokane, contributing $17 million annually to the
regional economy, estimates Patrick Jones, executive
director of the Biotechnology Association of the
Spokane Region.

Most are trials of new drugs and devices, originating
with companies elsewhere.

But there are also studies originating here, notably
Mielke’s Spokane Heart Study, which recently drew
attention from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Swiss researchers.

Although Spokane’s heart research is most familiar to
the general public, diabetes and its complications
would be the institute’s first focus.

Why diabetes?

Estimated to cost the nation $98 billion annually,
diabetes has increased in prevalence during the past
decade, intensifying interest in research. Doctors
now diagnose Type 2 diabetes in teenagers — ironic
because Type 2 once was called adult onset
diabetes.

Dr. Carol Wysham, a Rockwood Clinic
endocrinologist, ticks off complications of diabetes:
"Heart failure, kidney failure, dialysis, amputations —
one disease alone could bankrupt the medical
system."

Wysham brought to Spokane an NIH-funded pilot
study of aggressive diabetes management. The
study eventually could grow to 10,000 patients
across the country.

Two other reasons to emphasize diabetes: Its higher
prevalence among Native Americans, and the
expertise of diabetes researchers in the region.

Besides Wysham, diabetes researchers include WSU
Spokane Associate Professor John White, WSU
Pullman Pharmacy Professor Keith Campbell,
Intercollegiate College of Nursing Assistant Professor
Cynthia Corbett and Dr. Katherine Tuttle, researcher
at the Heart Institute of Spokane.

It also doesn’t hurt that U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt
cultivates connections with national agencies that
fund diabetes research, his interest sparked by his
21-year-old daughter’s diabetes.

"I’m working on a major initiative to devote $200
million to diabetes research," Nethercutt said. "I’m
trying to lay a foundation. . . . We have to be
prepared to receive it."

Last October, Nethercutt invited Dr. Allen Spiegel to
Spokane. Spiegel is director of the National Institute
of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, one
of the NIH granting agencies, with a $1.2 billion
budget.

"He loved coming and he sees a great potential
here," Nethercutt said. "He didn’t say this, but the
implication was that we’re not quite ready, we’re not
quite there yet."

Nethercutt is organizing a meeting in late August to
refine the Medical Research Institute proposal. One
message he has for organizers: Don’t rely on
Congress alone. Kick in some of your own money.

"When you put your own money in, you have a
greater stake and interest in the outcome," he said.

Four players — WSU Spokane, Inland Northwest
Health Services, Inland Northwest Technology
Education Center and the Spokane Regional
Chamber of Commerce — chipped in $60,000 to hire
consultants to evaluate Spokane’s chances for
biomedical development.

The report by Tripp-Umbach & Associates of
Pittsburgh, released last week, endorsed the Medical
Research Institute idea. It recommended formation of
an umbrella organization "driven by the region’s most
senior leadership."

At a forum last week, Jones, of the biotechnology
association, heard a visiting expert give a pithy list of
what’s needed to get research grants: "Facilities.
Then talent. Then money."

"We have the facility," Jones said, referring to the
new $39 million Health Sciences Building at WSU’s
Riverpoint campus. "What the Medical Research
Institute will do is prime the pump to get a small
nucleus of the appropriate people here to do
research."

More clinical researchers — and the biostatisticians,
technicians, epidemiologists and grant writers to
support them — would complement the basic
scientists at work at WSU’s Pullman campus and at
University of Idaho in Moscow.

The Medical Research Institute is not a first step
toward a medical school in Spokane, said WSU
Spokane Dean Bill Gray.

"In my view, there will not be another medical school
in the state in my professional career," Gray said.
"We have too many medical schools in this country,"
he said. "If anything, medical schools will be
defunded and cut. There’s absolutely no desire on
the part of Washington State University to build
another medical school."

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=071602&ID=s1183552&cat=section.business