Press Release
Date: 10-07-09Name: Zenaida Mendez Phone: (973) 972-7273
Email: mendezze@umdnj.edu
Global Tuberculosis Institute at UMDNJ Wins $4.4 Million CDC Contract
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“I am honored to receive the CDC Tuberculosis Trials Consortium award of $4,396,522 for the Global Tuberculosis Institute at UMDNJ, continuing the University’s long tradition of the pursuit of quality care through research,” said Bonita T. Mangura, M.D., professor of medicine at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. Since 1999, she has served as principal investigator for the New Jersey site of the TBTC.
Over the last decade, Mangura’s team has participated in 10 United States Public Health Service (USPHS) studies and enrolled nearly 500 patients. Currently, the Global Tuberculosis Institute (GTBI) is participating in the study of new drug regimens that could shorten tuberculosis treatment from nine to three months and six to four months, respectively. As of 2008, the GTBI was one of only five U.S. sites determined to be implementation-ready for any international clinical trial on tuberculosis.
“We are thrilled to remain a TBTC site following a very competitive renewal process and to be awarded a 10-year contract, which is rare,” said Lee B. Reichman, M.D., M.P.H., professor of medicine at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and executive director of the National Tuberculosis Center there.
Initial funding available - $781,645 - will cover costs associated with the first two years and the first two phases of this contract with the CDC. During that time, the GTBI will identify, screen, recruit, enroll and consent eligible volunteers into protocols for clinical trials and subsequently monitor participants as they undergo diagnostic procedures and receive prevention education or treatment regimens. Research participants will receive routine clinical care for tuberculosis similar to that received by patients not participating in trials.
Additional phases will be funded by the CDC according to a schedule yet to be finalized.
Reporters interested in arranging an interview with Drs. Bonita Mangura or Lee Reichman should contact Zenaida Mendez at (973) 972-7273 or mendezze@umdnj.edu.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with nearly 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.
