A prominent Indian-American bioengineering researcher has been named as a fellow in the US' National Academy of Inventors for his work in inventing path-breaking healthcare technologies.
C Mauli Agrawal, an IIT-Kanpur alumnus, is the Vice President of Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He will be formally inducted in April next year.
His work in orthopaedic implants, cardiovascular biomaterials and diabetic foot products has drawn recognition. His bioengineering research has resulted in 28 patents.
Agrawal, 56, will be among 582 fellows in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). He was selected for the honour because of his research and innovations in orthopaedic and cardiovascular biomaterials and implants.
"It is a great honour. Some of the greats, at least in my field, are members of this academy. It's good for San Antonio that we get more people there. Any recognition like this puts the spotlight on UTSA and I think that's great," Agrawal was quoted as saying by San Antonio Express News yesterday.
He has been in San Antonio since 1991. He worked at the UT Health Science Centre for 12 years before joining UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) in 2003.
Most of his work in San Antonio has focused on developing implants from orthopaedic and cardiovascular materials. His research group's work led to the formation of an engineering company that developed scaffolding that can be implanted in patients to help develop cartilage or bone.
Dr Steven Bailey, the cardiology division chair at the health science centre and a longtime colleague of Agrawal's, said the recognition is well-deserved.
"He's been incredibly insightful in terms of not only what can be demonstrated in an academic and research environment but, more importantly, what will translate in terms of meaningful patient progress as well," Bailey said.
Previously, Bharara had brought insider trading charges
against former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta and former hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam in one of the most high-profile insider trading cases in US history.
Gupta was convicted in 2012 of passing confidential boardroom information about Goldman to Rajaratnam and spent two years in prison.
Rajaratnam is still serving his 11 year prison term in a Massachusetts jail.
As part of the scheme, at Valvani's direction, Johnston had obtained highly confidential and material nonpublic information from a senior FDA official about the status and approval of a generic drug called enoxaparin and passed to Valvani.
He used this information to trade in the securities of two pharmaceutical companies likely to be affected by an approval of a generic enoxaparin application, earning approximately USD 25 million in trading profits when the FDA announced its first such approval.
In January 2010, after receiving a tip from Johnston, Valvani told his healthcare-focused hedge fund that Johnston should be given a raise.
In an email to the chief financial officer of the hedge fund, Valvani sought to justify providing a raise to Johnston by stressing how important he was to him, "(Johnston) is without question the most valuable consultant I've ever worked with and I'm pushing to reinforce the value of the relationship and encourage him to continue to go above and beyond for our team."
Valvani surrendered to authorities yesterday morning.
In separate actions, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Valvani, Lumiere, Johnston and Plaford.
"As alleged, Valvani, Johnston, and Plaford conspired to extract highly confidential and tightly guarded information about pending applications for generic drug approvals from the FDA, and traded on such information, reaping millions of dollars in illegal profits," Bharara had said in announcing the charges last week.
The charges had further alleged that beginning in or about 2005, Valvani directed Johnston to gather confidential and material nonpublic information from FDA employees about the FDA's consideration of the enoxaparin Abbreviated New Drug Application.
Johnston, in turn, improperly obtained such information from a senior Office of Generic Drugs official, who was his close friend and a former colleague.
