Oxygen Biotherapeutics, a developer of biotechnology products, and Virginia Commonwealth University have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a federal defense appropriation-funded joint venture focusing on developing new treatments for military battlefield injuries.
The joint venture intends to establish an entity to be known as the Purple Heart Injury Laboratories (PHIL) in Richmond, Virginia, as jointly managed and operated research laboratories focusing on healing battlefield injuries with new therapies and concepts.
This facility will be a core segment of Virginia Commonwealth University Reanimation Engineering Shock Center. The initial $15 million funding for the joint venture will be sought through an appropriation request in the 2009/2010 federal defense budget.
With the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the company and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) will work to finalize a definitive agreement and work jointly to generate the funding to create and run PHIL.
Chris Stern, chairman and CEO of Oxygen Biotherapeutics, said: The effort will combine the power of the co-operative efforts of the US military, a tier-one research university and an aggressive business model to assure rapid development of life-saving technologies and therapies for the US warfighter and hasten the transition of those technologies to commercial uses for the civilian population.
If approved, the appropriation would jump-start an entity whose research focus will create high-paying jobs that can lead to important and valuable improvements in medical treatments and outcomes. The potential is enormous and everyone involved will win.