Published: 2013-10-14 06:03:13
SUMMARY
In 2013, Dr. Leslie Boyer was been named one of 30 heroes of rare diseases by the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Orphan Products Development. Her work includes a clinical studies program conducted throughout Arizona with protocols for placebo-controlled, double-blind trials, open-label studies, historical control studies, and the statewide STING project. She has coordinated phase 2 and phase 3 multicenter clinical trials of pit viper antivenom, developed the Antivenom Index, and participated in the establishment of the Pan-American Lymphotoxinology Taskforce. Boyer, who is a member of the UA’s BIO5 Institute, has focused her scientific career on venomous bites and stings, which are often unrecognized public health issues. She began by developing public education programs that offer poison and toxin emergency treatment advice. In 2004 and 2005, with an FDA Orphan Product grant, she led a team that conducted clinical studies leading to the marketing approval of the first scorpion antivenom – representing one of more than 40 products developed through orphan grant-sponsored research.
