Research purse opens - with strings attached

By SIMON COLLINS

Crown research institutes plan to test a potential drug for prostate cancer and an extract from clover for menopausal women, using a new Government "pre-seed accelerator fund".

Six crown research institutes and four universities were given a total of $4.8 million a year in the first allocations from the new fund this week. They have to raise $2 for every $1 in grants from the fund.

Industrial Research new ventures general manager Geoff Todd said his allocation would fund several developments, starting with animal trials of a potential prostate cancer drug developed in collaboration with the Albert Einstein College in New York.

"It's an inhibitor. It stops an enzyme from performing its function, which therefore stops the growth of the cancer," he said.

"The existing treatments are not that successful for prostate cancer. We can interfere with the biological process so the cancer stops growing."

He said the drug would be made in IRL's new chemical synthesis plant in Lower Hutt, but the tests would take place in the United States using genetically engineered mice.

Dr Stewart Washer, the chief executive of AgResearch's commercial arm Celentis, said his money from the pre-seed fund would be used for projects including tests on a substance found in clover which could be a safe alternative to hormone replacement therapy for women undergoing menopause.

Auckland Uniservices will use its money for testing projects, including a scheme developed by the university's Clinical Trials Research Unit to send text messages to help people stop smoking.

Other grants have gone to Crop & Food Research, Forest Research, HortResearch, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, and Massey, Otago and Waikato Universities.