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I got a phone call today from someone applying for a very high level job at Children's Mercy Hospital (CMH). I no longer work at CMH, but this person wanted to see what I knew about this position, the person making the hiring decision, the management climate at CMH, etc. I couldn't offer too much advice as this position was quite different from the areas I worked in, but I did try to help as best I could. During the discussion, this person mentioned two business contacts that I might want to follow up with to help build my consulting customer base.
Madeira Therapeutics is a company located in Leawood, Kansas, just a few miles from where I live. According to the company's webpage,
We are a drug development company specializing in real pediatric medicine by reformulating compounds currently approved for adults with substantial safety and efficacy and determining an accurate pediatric dosage. Currently, 70% of the drugs prescribed for children are not approved by the FDA. Children metabolize drugs more rapidly than adults; our goal is to eliminate the "dosing down" of adult drugs for children based on weight. Madeira Therapeutics is one of the few drug development companies with a dedicated focus on this niche market-formulations that are sized to fit. www.madeiratherapeutics.com
One of the members of the Board of Directors is my former boss, Greg Kearns. I also found through this website an excellent article by the CEO, Peter Joiner, about an FDA program, 505(b)(2) (don't you just love those government names!), intended to encourage rapid development of pediatric medications.
- Joiner PR. The Pediatric Drug Development Challenge. Originally published in the February/March 2009 issue of Pharmaceutical Formulation and Quality. Available at: http://www.madeiratherapeutics.com/Userfiles/Docs/Pediatric_DrugChallenge.pdf [Accessed March 30, 2009].
The second group that he mentioned is the Kansas Bioscience Authority.
The Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) was created by the Kansas Economic Growth Act of 2004 with the sole purpose of advancing Kansas� leadership in bioscience. The KBA is the state�s largest-ever commitment to expanding Kansas� research capabilities, promoting innovation, and encouraging company formation that will create high-paying jobs for generations to come. The $581 million initiative is designed to: * Build world-class research capacity; * Foster the formation and growth of bioscience startups; * Support expansion of the state�s bioscience clusters; and * Facilitate industrial expansion and attraction. www.kansasbioauthority.org/about_the_kba/
This group should not be confused with the Kansas City Area Lifesciences Institute (www.kclifesciences.org/) which does similar work, but which focuses on the Kansas City region (both the Kansas and Missouri side)..
I doubt that I would directly seek out the services of this group (KBA), but many of the people that I consult with would be interested.