Your post was filled with so many mistakes it will take a lot of posts to work through all of them. First off you mention how State funding was drying up. This showed me you don't even know where the New Mexico money came from.
It was a Tabacco settlement lawsuit payout that New Mexico had to spend on lung cancer/smoking related illness. Here's an article that explains it better. Knowing where the money came from to fund Phase II might be a good thing for someone to know who wants to give their take on things. JMHO!
Friday, February 15, 2008 Tobacco money propels Biomoda lung cancer technology
The New Mexico Legislature included $1.3 million in its fiscal year 2009 budget proposal to study new technology for rapid detection of lung and other cancers.
The technology is being developed by Albuquerque's Biomoda Inc. based on discoveries made at Los Alamos National Laboratory 20 years ago. Biomoda licensed the technology in the early 1990s and has worked more than 15 years to develop it into a marketable product for clinical diagnostics and possibly new cancer therapies.
If signed by Gov. Bill Richardson, the money would come from the Tobacco Settlement Program fund and be channeled to the Veterans Services Department to test for lung cancer in 2,500 veterans statewide, said Sen. John Ryan, R-Bernalillo/Sandoval, who co-sponsored the legislation. The department, in turn, would contract the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro to supervise the study in partnership with Biomoda.
"It's much cheaper and simpler than any other technology available for detecting lung cancer, and results from the company's in-house testing indicate it's a very reliable diagnostic," Ryan said. "To some degree, we have to trust the studies they've already done, but this pilot project with veterans can help prove its efficacy. If it works, we're onto a big breakthrough."
Another legislative co-sponsor, Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana, said the study could help save lives.
"This is a perfect use of the tobacco settlement money -- addressing issues of cancer in veterans, who are 25 percent more likely than other people to develop lung cancer," Garcia said. "It could help diagnose cases in veterans at the early stage."
This is the second legislative appropriation for the study. Last year, the Legislature approved $350,000 to get the ball rolling, allowing New Mexico Tech and Biomoda to start the groundwork, said Van Romero, vice president for research and economic development at Tech.
"We already have one faculty member and some graduate research assistants working on it," Romero said. "If the $1.3 million comes through, we'll ramp up in early 2009 to conduct the study with a large number of patients."
Romero said he is very encouraged by testing done independently at Biomoda.
"The technology is fundamentally sound and seems to be working, but the devil is in the details," Romero said.
The technology is based on a patented porphyrin molecule -- a commonly occurring organic compound in the human body -- that binds to cancerous or pre-cancerous cells extracted from body fluids, such as lung sputum (phlegm), blood or urine. After the compound attaches itself, the cancerous cells grow red under a fluorescent light, allowing detection under a microscope, said Biomoda President and CEO John Cousins.
"It's easily recognizable at the cellular level, so you don't have to wait until the tumor is advanced," Cousins said.
Cousins said in-house testing has demonstrated more than 90 percent accuracy in detecting cancerous and pre-cancerous cells. The company is focusing first on lung cancer, but will later develop diagnostics for other cancers and study potential therapies that target drugs at cancer cells.
Biomoda has contracted the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for a validation study. The company will use the results from the Mayo Clinic and New Mexico Tech studies to apply for federal Food and Drug Administration approval, Cousins said.
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