Texas cancer-fighting agency has benefited Perry, Dewhurst donor
Caliber Biotherapeutics received a $12.8 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. (Sue Goetinck Ambrose)
In our new investigation of The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, we report that millions from the agency flowed to two firms founded by political contributor and Dallas businessman David Shanahan.
A month after Texas voters in 2007 approved the state’s 10-year, $3 billion program Shanahan and several of his associates began to pour tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign funds of Gov. Rick Perry and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst.
The $13 million in awards came on top of more than $8 million Shanahan’s firms previously had received from funds controlled by Perry’s office. Those funds: the Texas Enterprise Fund, a little-known fund to assist communities with military bases, and the state’s Emerging Technology Fund. (Read The News’ previous coverage on the tech fund’s awards to political contributors here.)
CPRIT said the largest of its awards to Shanahan’s companies, $12.8 million to Caliber Biotherapeutics, was given based on recommendations from experts who reviewed the grants. The News’ Austin bureau reporter James Drew and I reported yesterday that reviewers gave Caliber the lowest science score of all companies receiving such awards.
CPRIT told us political connections had nothing to do with the awards to David Shanahan’s companies. Aides to Perry and Dewhurst, who along with the House Speaker make appointments to CPRIT’s Oversight Committee, said the elected officials are not involved in the agency’s operations, including which applicants get funded.
Our full coverage includes a 2-minute video on Shanahan’s connections.
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