LSU Doctor Wins Patent for Stroke Drug, Grants for Study

NEW ORLEANS – An LSU physician has won a patent for an experimental drug to treat strokes and almost $2 million in grants to study an unrelated eye problem, the university said Friday.

The new drug is designed to keep toxic compounds produced during a stroke from building up in the brain, by blocking the chemical receptors for those compounds, said Dr. Nicolas Bazan, director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health Sciences Center at New Orleans.

It hasn’t been tried in people, but it helped animals recover significantly – and is “very friendly to brain cells, heart cells, kidney and liver” and unlikely to cause dangerous side effects, he said.

Another drug for which Bazan’s research has earned several patents for LSU is a painkiller in the first stage of human testing, safety testing.

Bazan says animal tests didn’t indicate any toxicity.

Dangerous side effects are a big problem with painkillers. They are safe for most people. But too much acetaminophen can damage the liver; aspirin and ibuprofen can cause stomach bleeding.

The five-year grant announced Friday will support research into degeneration of the retina of the eye. It is just the latest in a series of grants won by the center, LSU said.

It said the center has won more than $30 million in grants over the past five years.

That includes $1.2 million in 2001, $12.2 million in 2002, $5.5 million in 2003, $6.7 million in 2004 and $3.2 million so far this year, plus $2.7 million in small-business grants to St. Charles Pharmaceuticals, the company which has rights to the experimental painkiller.

“I am just a little inventor. LSU owns the patent,” Bazan said.

The neuroscience center had 15 employees eight years ago, when it moved into its present offices and laboratories.

It now has 110 employees and expects to add 300 more over the next few years, Bazan said.