Lumara Health™ Announces Recipients of $75,000 in Grants to Fund Prematurity Prevention Research

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lumara Health™, a St. Louis-based specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to advancing the health of women, has awarded $75,000 in grants to fund research aimed at finding solutions to decreasing premature birth, including new clinical strategies for reducing preterm birth and identifying high-risk women early in their pregnancies to ensure they seek appropriate health care.

"We are pleased to help support the important research put forth by our award recipients. At Lumara Health, we are committed to collaborating with health care professionals to address the issue of preterm birth," said Michael Jozwiakowski, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Development at Lumara Health.

The recipients were selected by an independent external review panel composed of Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialists and Obstetricians. The panel awarded $50,000 to the principal investigator, Scott Sullivan, MD, MSCR and co-investigator, Roger Newman, MD from the Medical University of South Carolina, along with co-investigator, Cody Reynolds, PhD with Clemson University Department of Bioengineering for their innovative work in the development of drug-eluting pessaries for the treatment of preterm birth.

A team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, comprised of principal investigator Joseph R. Biggio, MD and co-investigators, Allison Todd, RN, MSN, and Angela Jukkala, Ph.D, were awarded $25,000 to help advance their research focused on determining ways to identify women who have risk factors that could increase their likelihood of a premature delivery and to ensure these patients receive appropriate obstetrical management to help reduce the risk of preterm birth. 

"I am glad to see this cooperative effort to fund promising research in prematurity prevention," said Haywood Brown, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University. "More collaboration of this type is needed to identify new treatments and ensure that existing therapies are utilized correctly and in appropriate populations."

About Lumara Health
Lumara Health™ is a specialty pharmaceutical company committed to advancing the health of women throughout the stages of their lives, with a particular focus on maternal health. At the heart of Lumara Health is our mission to help women achieve healthier lives. For more information on Lumara Health and our FDA-approved products, please visit www.LumaraHealth.com.

SOURCE Lumara Health