The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) will honor Raymond Schinazi, PhD, DSc, with its 2014 Research & Hope Award for Excellence in Academic Research.
This year's Research & Hope Awards program honors scientists whose efforts in the discovery and development of HIV/AIDS therapies have greatly benefited public health and whose dedication to biopharmaceutical science exemplifies the best among academic organizations and biopharmaceutical companies.
The award will be presented at a dinner ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC. PhRMA also will host an educational forum on Capitol Hill the afternoon of Sept. 10, providing the awardees the opportunity to discuss their work on a moderated panel attended by Congressional staff and key stakeholders.
Schinazi is the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics at Emory and director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology. He is a senior research career scientist at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Director of the Scientific Working Group on Viral Eradication for the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR).
A world leader in the area of nucleoside chemistry, Schinazi is the co-inventor of HIV/AIDS drugs taken by 94 percent of U.S. patients on drug therapy and by thousands more globally. He is founder of five biotechnology companies focusing on antiviral drug discovery and development: RFS Pharma, LLC (formed in 2004); ActivBiotics, LLC (formed in 2008); Pharmasset Inc. (acquired by Gilead in 2012), Triangle Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Gilead in 2003), Idenix Pharmaceuticals (51 percent acquired by Novartis in 2003).
Schinazi has served on the Presidential Commission on AIDS and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Georgia Biomedical Industry Growth Award, the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Hepatitis B Foundation, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's Top Innovators in America Award. He currently serves as a Governing Trustee for the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) and as a Board member for the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC). He was inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia in March 2012, and he received the Intellectual Property Legends Award in October 2012.