Institute for Pediatric Innovation (IPI) Awarded Grant to Support Research in Children's Medicines With World Health

CAMBRIDGE, MA, Mar 02 (MARKET WIRE) --
The Institute for Pediatric Innovation (IPI), Inc., a nonprofit focused
on transforming unmet needs for pediatric care into product opportunities
for industry, today announced that it has been awarded a $550,000 grant
to support World Health Organization research in children's medicines,
being conducted with Unicef. The goal of the research, which aligns
directly with IPI's mission, is to increase the number of medicines
designed and formulated specifically for children.

IPI will conduct an intensive investigation of preferred dosage forms with
children, parents and healthcare providers in Tanzania and two other East
African countries. This research will guide development of needed
children's medicines, along with appropriate dosing guides, for chronic
therapy of diseases such as tuberculosis.

"The WHO initiative addresses one of the core concerns that led to the
founding of IPI," said Dr. Stephen P. Spielberg of IPI. "Beyond basic
access, children need medications in dosage forms that they can easily
consume, and in dosages that have been tested based on their size and
weight. In addition, medicines used in the developing world need to be
stable in difficult environmental conditions such as high heat and
humidity, easily transported and low cost. In many cases, reformulating an
existing medication with these factors in mind can make a tremendous
difference in its efficacy for children."

This work supports the "make medicines child size" initiative, launched by
WHO in December 2007. This campaign aims to raise awareness and accelerate
action to address the need for improved availability and access to safe
child-specific medicines for children under 15. According to a recent
announcement by WHO providing additional details on this program, more
than 50 percent of medicines prescribed for children have either not been
developed specifically for children or have not been proven to be
effective and safe for their use.

"Identifying dosage forms that are easy to use by healthcare providers and
parents and palatable for children will go a long way to improving access
to medicines for children," said Dr. Sue Hill, World Health Organization.
"The work of IPI will provide valuable information for researchers and
manufacturers in developing safe, effective dosage forms that are
specifically designed and tested for children."

Background -- About the Institute for Pediatric Innovation (IPI)

The Institute for Pediatric Innovation, a nonprofit organization, was
formed to foster innovation to improve pediatric care by stimulating
development of appropriate medical devices and drugs designed
specifically for babies and children. Working with a Consortium of
Pediatric Hospitals, IPI strives to identify the most needed products.
IPI organizes public, private, nonprofit and for-profit collaborations in
product innovation and licenses the resulting products to companies for
commercial development. IPI is led by an experienced team of experts in
licensing technology in pediatric medical care, commercializing medical
technology, and marketing medical devices and pharmaceutical products. To
date, IPI has received support from its consortium members along with the
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Children's Medical Ventures, Inc., AGA
Medical and Oxford Bioscience Partners.

Dr. Stephen P. Spielberg will serve as principal investigator for IPI,
along with colleagues Dr. Lisa Adams, Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Dartmouth Medical School and the Dickey Center for International
Understanding, and Dr. Sienna Craig, Assistant Professor of Anthropology,
Dartmouth College. Dr. Spielberg's team will collaborate with colleagues
at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania.

Dr. Spielberg leads IPI's Pediatric Pharmaceutical Reformulation Program,
launched in January 2008 with the goal of tailoring existing
pharmaceutical products for children's needs. Children's Mercy Hospitals
and Clinics, Kansas City, Mo., a founding member of IPI's Consortium of
Pediatric Hospitals, provided initial funding for the program.

IPI's Consortium of Pediatric Hospitals is helping to identify the medical
products that are most needed to improve the care of children. Clinicians
from the Consortium hospitals help to identify issues, set priorities, and
specify and test products. In addition to Children's Mercy, founding
members are University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital
and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. Recently, two
additional leading pediatric institutions -- Children's Hospital in Denver
and Children's Hospital in Wisconsin -- joined the Consortium.

In addition to his work with IPI, Stephen Spielberg, MD, PhD, serves as
Director of the Center for Personalized Medicine and Therapeutic
Innovation at Children's Mercy. Dr. Spielberg also holds the Marion
Merrell Dow Endowed Chair in Pediatric Pharmacogenetics and a
professorial appointment at the UMKC School of Medicine. He served as
Dean of Dartmouth Medical School from 2003 to 2007 and is one of the
nation's best-known specialists in pediatric pharmacology.

Institute for Pediatric Innovation contact:
Julia Ferrara
Director of Operations
617-401-2377
Email Contact

Press contact:
Barbara Heffner
CHEN PR, Inc.
781-672-3112
Email Contact

Copyright 2009, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

-0-