Medford device maker wins $1.5M grant
Lawrence Siebert, president Chembio Diagnostics of Medford. (September 2009) Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan
Research projects for rapid-diagnosis tests for HIV, hepatitis C and syphilis have brought a Medford company nearly $1.5 million in federal grants under President Barack Obama's national health-care reform law.
Medical device maker Chembio Diagnostics Inc. said it got $1,467,000 in grants for six of its product lines that qualify under the new law's "Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Projects" category.
"The projects also needed to show a reasonable potential to create or sustain high-quality jobs and to advance United States competitiveness in the fields of life sciences, biological and medical sciences," Chembio said in a news release this week.
The awards are given to projects that meet one or more of the following criteria:
-- Show a reasonable potential to detect or treat chronic or acute diseases and conditions.
-- Reduce the long-term growth of health care costs in the United States.
-- Result in new therapies to treat areas of unmet medical need.
-- Significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within 30 years.
Above, Chembio chairman and president Lawrence Siebert. (September 2009)
