Healthcare Focused Fund to Invest $100 Million in Harvard Drug Development

On 3/13/19 Deerfield Management announced plans to invest $100 million in translational life science research at Harvard. Harvard University and Deerfield Management, a healthcare investment firm, have established a major strategic R&D alliance to speed the development and translation of biomedical and life-science innovations into transformative treatments that can improve life, health, and medical care. Through a newly launched company called Lab1636, Deerfield has committed $100 million in initial funding to support the alliance.

Spearheaded by Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD), the alliance is expected to catalyze the development of novel therapeutics and rapidly drive innovations toward clinical validation.

A private company wholly owned by affiliates of Deerfield, Lab1636 will support Harvard R&D projects throughout various stages of drug discovery and development, for example enabling studies to explicate the biology of disease, validate therapeutic targets, or achieve a proof-of-concept necessary for filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application.

“The sheer scope of this collaboration with Deerfield may prove transformative for Harvard research,” said Vivian Berlin, Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships in OTD. “This alliance has immense potential to bridge the development gap, ensure continuity of resources, and complement our other major translational programs, such as the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator.”

More than 70 startups have launched to commercialize Harvard technologies in the past 5 years. Collectively they have raised more than a billion dollars in financing. To further bridge the academic-industry development gap, Harvard OTD manages the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator and the Physical Sciences & Engineering Accelerator. More information about the Office of Technology Development can be found here.