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Buffalo, New York, June 11, 2008
Surinder Mehta
NRI John P. Kapoor, Ph.D. '72, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur
has made a $5 million investment in the UB School of Pharmacy
and Pharmaceutical Sciences through the John and Editha Kapoor
Charitable Foundation. With this gift and prior gifts that together
total more than $10.8 million, Kapoor becomes the most generous
individual donor ever to UB. In light of this generosity, the
university will name the pharmacy building John Kapoor Hall in
his honor.
The gift, issued as a challenge to encourage others to follow
his exemplary lead, will support construction of a new home for
the nationally ranked pharmacy school, as well as faculty research,
student financial aid and an emerging technologies fund.
Mr. Kapoor from Amritsar, an alumnus of the University at Buffalo
considered a visionary leader in the pharmaceutical industry received
a fellowship that helped him to earn a doctoral degree and begin
his highly successful career in 1960.
Kapoor said, "I owe so much to this university. Fortunately,
I am in a position to help, and the university is on the top of
my list."
He began his corporate career on Grand Island, New York as general
manager for Lyphomed, a unit of Stone Container Corp. He was named
president of the division in 1980, and in 1981 he bought it for
$2.7 million. He took the company's sales from $4 million to $172
million, before eventually selling it. With the profits, he formed
EJ Financial Enterprises Inc, which invests in healthcare startups.
Since 1986, the Kapoor Charitable Foundation has funded research,
a state-of-the-art instrumentation core and graduate fellowships
at UB. More recent contributions provided support for five Kapoor
Fellows in the pharmacy school, three of whom have graduated and
begun their careers and two who are current pharmacy school students.
The foundation's support also was critical to the school's successful
completion of a Kresge Foundation Challenge Grant for $500,000
to pay for additional equipment.
"It is my privilege to help UB continue at the leading edge
of innovation in pharmaceutical sciences education," Kapoor
said. "The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
has played a significant role in shaping my career and it is my
honor to be part of its future."
The UB pharmacy school is preparing for its eventual move to
the South Campus, where it will join the university's four other
health science schools -- dental medicine, medicine, nursing and
public health -- that comprise the UB Academic Health Center.
The pharmacy school's new home will be funded by a true private-public
partnership, with the State of New York providing $46 million
for construction and the remainder coming from the university
and private investments. It will be the first UB professional
school to relocate back to the City of Buffalo since the construction
of the North Campus in Amherst in the 1970s.
"His gifts have transformed the school," Anderson said.
"His generosity has allowed us to leverage core support for
research programs and has enabled us to provide seed grants for
young faculty, who, in turn, have achieved a very significant
level of success in research activities. His new gift will help
vault the school into the future with an improved, high-tech facility
where we continue the important work of educating generations
of pharmacy professionals."
Slated for completion in 2011, the pharmacy school building will
be a vital resource for advancing patient care, attracting students
and faculty, and providing a contemporary learning environment.
It will include a state-of-the-art Pharmaceutical Care Teaching
and Learning Center, which will support a comprehensive interprofessional
curriculum focused on continuity of care, medication therapy management,
collaborative drug-therapy management and patient education. Other
features will include laboratories dedicated to pharmacy informatics
and information systems, audio and video conferencing for real-time
interaction with remote locations, live Web casts and recording
capabilities, and interactive audience response systems.
"Without this support it would have been impossible for
me to come to the United States to pursue higher education. I
received tremendous support and encouragement from the faculty
at the school as I tried to adjust to a different system of education.
I also learned a great deal about this country at the university,"
Kapoor said in an interview in 2002.
Throughout his career, Kapoor has demonstrated keen marketing
insight. As president and CEO of LyphoMed, he rejuvenated the
hospital products company into a more than $100-million-a-year
business, which he then sold to Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals. He went
on to serve in leadership positions at several U.S. pharmaceutical
companies over the next 30 years, including Option Care, Inc.,
a provider of home health-care services; Akorn, Inc., a manufacturer
and marketer of generic ophthalmic products; and Introgen Therapeutics,
Inc., a gene therapy company.
Kapoor, with his late wife, Editha, a native of Grand Island,
N.Y., established the John and Editha Kapoor Charitable Foundation
to support children and youth services, Christian organizations,
health organizations, higher education, hospitals and charitable
causes in India. The many honors he has received include the UB
Distinguished Alumni Award, a State University of New York honorary
degree, the San Diego Indian American Society Chakra Award and
the American Cancer Society International Achievement Award for
Philanthropy.
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public
university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State
University of New York. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue
their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate,
graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the
University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American
Universities.
