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Alzheimer's Center Forging Survival Plan

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By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: October 21, 2008

TAMPA - The job cuts made last month at the Byrd Alzheimer's center will help save the troubled institute $2 million, but they will not be enough to sustain the enterprise for long, the center's chief executive officer told his board of directors Monday.

To succeed, CEO Stephen Klasko said, the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute must strategically invest in its science and clinical operations to bring in revenue and lure federal research dollars; in developers who can recruit private donors; and in alliances with companies eager to produce drug therapies for Alzheimer's patients.

The center is operating on $15 million in reserves and only has enough cash to sustain itself for a couple of years or so.

With planned investments, bankrolled by the institute's available cash, the Byrd center could collect $20 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health within a few years, Klasko said.

He also told directors that he will soon provide more details on the investments.

"This is an opportunity to move forward and have Florida be the center for Alzheimer's research," said Klasko, who also is the University of South Florida's vice president for health sciences.

The center had been plodding along without any state money this fiscal year. In the spring, the institute's leaders gave up a year in state funding to preserve the center's independence and repel a takeover by the university. By June, however, they chose to affiliate with USF and turn the center's management over to the university.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.

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