Stanford University and Deerfield Management, a health care investment firm, have collaborated to create Porter Alliance for Innovative Medicines to accelerate translational research into clinical therapeutics.
Deerfield has committed up to $130 million and additional scientific and operational support to this new collaboration to advance research coming out of Stanford faculty laboratories with a focus on drug prototypes emerging from Stanford's Innovative Medicines Accelerator.
The Porter Alliance for Innovative Medicines aims to close a historic gap between scientific research and clinical care. This collaboration with Deerfield Management will ensure that Stanford's breakthroughs in biomedical research translate rapidly to treatments and cures for patients."
Lloyd Minor, MD, Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine
The newly launched Porter Alliance for Innovative Medicines is a private company wholly owned by affiliates of Deerfield Management. Its objective is to fund projects that have uncovered novel therapeutics that have the potential to cure life-altering diseases. This collaboration will rely on the robust and diverse drug pipeline already established by Stanford's Innovative Medicines Accelerator.
"We are proud to collaborate with Stanford University to help build the bridge that connects basic research to patient cures," said James Flynn, managing partner at Deerfield Management. "It requires tremendous infrastructure and support to change the probability of success and speed to market for discovery. Through Porter Alliance, Stanford investigators will receive the necessary resources, expertise and management to advance their outstanding science."
The collaboration will be governed by a joint steering committee comprising equal representation from Deerfield and Stanford University. Stanford researchers will be encouraged to submit proposals for consideration for execution through the collaboration. Accepted proposals will receive a development plan aimed at achieving investigational new drug readiness. Selected proposals will also have the eligibility for additional capital investments to create spin-off companies.
The Porter Alliance connects Stanford to the broader biopharmaceutical industry and helps researchers understand the problems they need to solve to make transformative medicines. A key partner in the collaboration is the Innovative Medicines Accelerator, established as part of Stanford's vision to be a more purposeful university by turning breakthrough discoveries into solutions for the world's most pressing problems.
"The Innovative Medicines Accelerator is helping Stanford faculty transform their discoveries into prototype medicines, and we must do whatever we can to ensure those medicines get to the patients who need them," said Chaitan Khosla, PhD, director of the Innovative Medicines Accelerator and professor of chemistry and of chemical engineering at Stanford University. "I am excited and grateful that the Porter Alliance for Innovative Medicines will serve as a bridge between our promising prototypes and approved therapeutics."
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