UNC-Chapel Hill has become the latest university to join forces with Deerfield Management and launch a $65m commercialisation fund.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has partnered investment firm Deerfield Management to create a $65m commercialisation fund called Pinnacle Hill.
Pinnacle Hill will help accelerate the discovery and development of new therapeutics. The fund was announced last week and officially launched on Tuesday at an event that featured chancellor Carol Folt and James Flynn, managing partner of Deerfield.
Apart from capital, Pinnacle Hill will also offer researchers access to drug development guidance, project management oversight and business strategy. Deerfield may make additional investments in promising projects.
Each project will be able to apply for investigational new drug enabling studies – an important step towards achieving regulatory approval for a treatment in the US.
Pinnacle Hill will be led by a joint steering committee with three members representing the university: Terry Magnuson, vice chancellor for research and the Sarah Graham Kenan professor of genetics, Dhiren Thakker, distinguished professor and interim dean of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy and interim director of the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, and Blossom Damania, the Boshamer distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology and vice dean for research in the School of Medicine.
Folt said: “This is a very exciting new partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and Deerfield Management. In creating a new company, Pinnacle Hill, we are bringing together the best of academia and industry to accelerate innovative drug research.
“By investing in our faculty’s early stage research, this partnership advances our commitment to improving the health and well-being of people around the world.”
Pinnacle Hill follows Deerfield’s creation of Bluefield Innovations in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, Ancora Innovation with Vanderbilt University, Lakeside Discovery with Northwestern University and Poseidon Innovation with University of California, San Diego.
– Feature image courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill