Doyle announces licensing of UWM research by global pharmaceutical company
Chemistry Professor James Cook (left) gives Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle a tour of his UWM lab.
Gov. Jim Doyle on Tuesday announced that the global pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb has licensed a patented anti-anxiety compound developed by UWM Chemistry Professor James Cook. It is the first time an established company has licensed a patent from UWM research.
Doyle made the announcement at a news conference where he also awarded $500,000 to help fund research through the Biotechnology Alliance, a consortium of universities in the Milwaukee area that includes UWM.
"This represents a major step forward in Milwaukee’s emergence as a research powerhouse," Doyle said. "The agreement not only reflects Milwaukee’s growing status as a research center, but also could bring significant new resources back to UWM to be reinvested in research."
Cook’s compound provides the same effect as the mostly widely used drugs for anxiety – benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax – but without the side effects such as drowsiness, amnesia and muscle weakness. And, unlike benzodiazepines, the compound is not habit-forming.
Cook’s patent was licensed by the WiSys Research Foundation, a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which is the patenting and licensing organization for all of the University of Wisconsin System institutions except UW-Madison.
Cook and his research team currently are identifying regions in the brain that cause the unwanted side effects, and designing drugs that will not affect those regions. Their work focuses on diseases such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, epilepsy and malaria.
He is currently working on drugs for more effective control of alcoholism. He is developing a compound that interacts with certain neurotransmitters in the brain to block the euphoric effects of alcohol, ease anxiety and inhibit sedation.
Cook said the BTA will help foster more collaboration among the area’s researchers. For example, he said, it was through a BTA grant proposal that he and Marquette University professor David Baker recently found themselves partners on a study on schizophrenia.
"What we’ve seen here today are the ingredients needed to grow Wisconsin," said Chancellor Carlos Santiago. "We hope this will be the first of many such agreements at UWM in the future."
The BTA was founded by UWM, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, Milwaukee School of Engineering and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside to bring economic growth to the state’s biomedical technology industry by creating commercial applications for the academic expertise in the region. The state money will be matched by the BTA institutions and earmarked for research.
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