$2.4-Million Gift for UCI Cancer Center

In the largest private donation ever to its medical center, UC Irvine received a $2.4-million gift for cancer research Friday from an Orange County family that founded one of the nation’s largest makers of generic drugs.

The UCI Cancer Center will be renamed the Chao Family Clinical Cancer Research Center in honor of the family, which established Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Corona. The facility will become the nation’s only federally designated cancer research center to bear the name of an Asian American family.

“We know cancer is a devastating disease, and we are interested in getting UCI healthy, strong and able to serve the entire region,” said Allen Chao, a family spokesman and chief executive officer of the 12-year-old company. “We are making this donation as a family and on behalf of the Asian American community.”

The Chao family promised to contribute another $600,000 over the next several years.

Located at UCI Medical Center in Orange, the UCI Cancer Center is one of 54 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers in the nation, and the only one in Orange County.

Projects at the center, which has more than 100 faculty members and seven research programs, range from exploring cancer cell growth to conducting studies on cancer patients. The center, which reported 28,000 patient visits last year and has a $1.1-million annual operating budget, also provides prevention, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation programs.

UCI officials said the bulk of the donation will help complete construction of the top floor of the four-story cancer center. Some of the money will also be used for research.

“The Chao family is expressing their confidence in UCI Medical Center and the work that goes on here, and it couldn’t come at a better time in view of the year we had,” said Mark R. Laret, executive director of the UCI Medical Center, referring to a nationally publicized scandal last year at UCI’s fertility clinic. “The Chaos’ generosity to UCI will help ensure that Orange County residents continue to have access to some of the most advanced cancer therapies available today.”

The donation should further enhance the prestige of the cancer center, university officials said. The center joined the elite of the nation’s cancer programs in 1994 when it won recognition from the National Cancer Institute, the federal agency conducting research on the disease. The designation included a $3-million federal grant for cancer research.

“Winning the NCI designation in 1994 was a big step for our program,” said Dr. Frank L. Meyskens Jr., medical director of the cancer center. “Receiving such a generous gift clearly shows that our achievements are being recognized.”

In spite of having a building named after them, the four Chao family members who made the donation are shy about public attention. Allen Chao, 50, was the only one of the four Taiwanese immigrants who wished to be identified.

As a youth, Allen Chao worked at his parents’ factory that manufactured generic drugs. Later, Chao and his siblings left Taiwan to attend graduate school in the United States, Chao said. After trying to open a drug business in Chicago, Chao moved to Orange County and started Watson Pharmaceuticals in 1984.

Chao, who first toured the UCI facility in October, said the family’s motivation for the donation was to strengthen a vital medical resource.

“There’s no special thing where one of our family members or friends has cancer,” said Chao, who lives in Anaheim. “This is purely a gesture of goodwill for the good people at the UCI Medical Center and the community.”