Sankyo Pharma Gives $100,000 to UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Sankyo Pharma of Edison, N.J., a division of Sankyo Pharma Inc., has given $100,000 to the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University at Buffalo to support its teaching, training and research, as well as for equipment purchases in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Wayne K. Anderson, Ph.D., dean of the school, thanked Sankyo Pharma for its generosity and the recognition it represents.

"It is essential that the school remain at a 'state-of-the-art' level in order for our students to develop to their fullest potential and for the school's research programs to continue in its leadership role," Anderson said.

William J. Jusko, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, praised the efforts of Daniel E. Salazar, senior director of clinical pharmacology and pharmacokinetics for Sankyo Pharma Development, who was instrumental in securing the grant for UB. Salazar received his doctorate from the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1989.

Noting that some of the funding will help establish a new computer classroom, Jusko said that "another portion will go toward purchase of new analytical equipment, which will augment our research in pharmacogenomics."

Pharmacogenomics is the study of how data generated by the human-genome project can be used to tailor drug treatments to an individual's genetic makeup.

Salazar said Sankyo Pharma places great value on pharmaceutical sciences, and chose UB to receive the grant because of its emphasis on education and research in this area.

"The program at the University at Buffalo is clearly excellent and we wanted to provide support in recognition of that excellence," Salazar said.

Sankyo Pharma is dedicated to developing and marketing important pharmaceutical products for the U.S. market and has offices in New Jersey and California. Its parent company, Sankyo Co., Ltd., is the second-largest pharmaceutical company in Japan, with annual sales of $4.5 billion and more than 11,000 employees worldwide. The company has a long history of discovering new classes of drugs, including breakthrough therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular conditions, metabolic disorders/diabetes, infection and cancer.

A leader in the field of pharmaceuticals for more than 100 years, Sankyo was the first modern manufacturer of Western medicines in Japan. In 1899, it was the first company to isolate epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), and in 1910, it identified vitamin B1 for the first time.

The UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences ranks fourth in the U.S. in National Institutes of Health research funding per Ph.D. faculty member, according to the latest report on pharmacy faculty from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Founded in 1886, the school is the second-oldest component of the University at Buffalo and the only pharmacy school in the State University of New York (SUNY) system.