Otradi
Oregon Translational Research and Drug Development Institute (OTRADI)
OTRADI is a non-profit entity with state funding, which originated from an Oregon legislative allocation to the Oregon Innovation Council (Oregon InC) and is administered by the Oregon Business Development Department (OBDD).
OTRADI's financial strategy is to generate enough grant and fee-for-service revenue within five years to offset its operating expenses and become self-sustaining. OTRADI accepts donations of cash, stocks and materials such as compounds from individuals, foundations, private companies, and government entities.
"It costs about a billion dollars to develop a new drug for use in humans, and since tropical diseases tend to occur in more impoverished countries, there's little hope that a pharmaceutical company will recoup that billion dollars. Since there are no pharmaceutical firms interested in developing a new malaria drug, the responsibility falls on academic and medical institutions to develop those therapies. OTRADI allows us to function as a far larger entity, rather than a small, academic-type lab with restricted resources. I hope that one day soon we will have novel anti-malarial treatment that can be used in those individuals who are most at risk of dying from the disease, pregnant women and young children." — Michael Riscoe, Ph.D., director of the Experimental Chemotherapy Lab at the Portland VA Medical Center
"That is truly a level of expertise that we have and it makes us more of a lightning rod for other researchers or companies that might want to move here. I think this type of technology makes us more competitive from an academic standpoint as well. It brings the required technology here and will help Oregon continue as a leader in neuroscience, infectious diseases, and cancer biology." — Mary Stenzel-Poore, Ph.D., professor and interim chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at OHSU