UCSD makes a splash with $65m Poseidon fund

University of California (UC) San Diego unveiled the $65m Poseidon Innovation fund yesterday with the money coming from healthcare-focused investment firm Deerfield Management.

Poseidon Innovation will push early-stage university drug research. Deerfield will channel capital and resources into the initiative to help ensure research programs can withstand risks inherent in the embryonic phases of development.

Projects which exhibit commercial potential may go on to become spinouts with the possibility of follow-on investment from Deerfield.

Poseidon is intended to spur flexible, inter-disciplinary approaches to development which transcend limitations arising from traditional organisational boundaries.

Projects will receive enough funds to sustain a full drug development program, including work towards securing investigational new drug status with US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration.

Members of Deerfield’s management team will sit on Poseidon’s joint steering committee alongside UC San Diego representatives including Paul Roben, associate vice-chancellor for the office of innovation and commercialization, and James McKerrow, dean of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Alan Saltiel, director of the UC San Diego Institute for Diabetes and Metabolic Health, will also serve on the committee.

Sandra Brown, vice-chancellor for research at UC San Diego, said: “Poseidon Innovation provides a new pathway for our investigators to push their discoveries to fruition.

“The funding and drug development support provided can enable therapies to get to patients faster. In breaking the traditional rules of discovery, we can create a greater impact and a better future for patients.”

UC San Diego becomes the latest university to announce a Deerfield partnership targeting the life science sector.

Deerfield teamed up with Northwestern University to launch Lakeside Discovery in June 2018, after starting Ancora Innovation and Bluefield Innovations with Vanderbilt and Johns Hopkins respectively. Like Poseidon, all three initiatives launched with a budget of $65m.