Comment on OMB-2026-0034-0001
Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc.OpposeBusiness
Summary: Constance McKee, President & CEO of Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc., opposes the proposed changes to federal financial assistance regulations. She argues that the changes would undermine the independence of the grant review process and make it more difficult for companies to secure necessary funding.
To whom it may concern:
We are one of the very few SBIR Phase II awardees who have crossed the translational funding gap (aka "Valley of Death," for those of us of a certain age, we never use that expression, but always use 'translational funding gap').
I have attended SPIE BIOS for the last six years on behalf of my company, Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc., hence my interest in optics and photonics (part of the Manzanita portfolio is developing nerve imaging agents in the first instance for prostate cancer). We follow a "grants or bust" strategy.
It is already difficult enough to secure grants funding. Your proposed changes would make it more difficult (i.e., political appointees, not principal investigators, would take control of grant awards; impact scores from peer review are no longer binding; and active grants can be terminated at any time, for any reason.)
Please do not proceed with the proposed changes. We have worked for years to make the grant review process as independent, impartial, and science-based as possible.
Yours sincerely
Constance McKee MBA
President & CEO
Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc.