For the second time this year, state lawmakers have had to shell out money to help cover operating expenses at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, which has been badly hammered by the pandemic.
In a supplemental appropriations bill legislators approved last week, Pennington received $2 million, which will be used to cover operational expenses and help cope with revenue losses associated with the suspension of research studies as a result of the pandemic, according to Pennington Executive Director Dr. John Kirwan.
During an earlier legislative session in June, lawmakers approved $2.2 million in emergency funds for Pennington to help cover losses the center incurred in March, April and May.
Though the center has since stemmed the flow of red ink, Kirwan says “Pennington doesn’t have much, if any, capacity for growth this year.”
Ironically, this was supposed to be a banner year for Pennington, which last October announced plans to launch a new bariatric surgery center in March—the same week the state went into lockdown because of the pandemic.
As a result, the bariatric surgery center, which represented a new revenue stream for the grant-dependent research institution, was delayed. Though the new center has since opened, it hasn’t yet gotten up to speed and most of the patients, who were expected to travel from around the U.S. to Baton Rouge for treatment, have yet to materialize.
At the same time, the clinical trials that make up much of Pennington’s bread and butter were put on hold. Those trials are funded by large pharmaceutical companies, who pay on a per-visit basis. So when a trial is suspended, so is the money that goes along with it.
Though most of the trials have also resumed, COVID-19 mitigation measures have reduced the number of patients the center is able to enroll in its trials, thereby reducing the amount of reimbursement it receives.
“The changes we have instituted to ensure safety—the steps include social distancing and deep cleaning of exam rooms between each volunteer visit—have greatly reduced the normal volume of daily research visits that we can safely accommodate,” Kirwan says. “Our volume hasn’t yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.”
Pennington wasn’t the only higher ed institution that received money in the recently approved spending bill, which drew criticism from some because of the way appropriations were earmarked in a close-door conference committee meeting.
The LSU Ag Center received $750,000.
Both Pennington and the LSU Ag Center were ineligible to receive the federal aid other higher ed institutions received earlier this year through the CARES Act. Because of the way the act was worded, only teaching institutions with students were able to receive funds.
