Deerfield Management and Vanderbilt University have launched Ancora Innovation with $65m in capital to support early-stage life science research and back resulting spinouts.
Vanderbilt University yesterday partnered healthcare investment firm Deerfield Management to launch Ancora Innovation, a $65m commercialisation vehicle focused on accelerating drug development.
The initiative, which follows a similar program Deerfield entered into with Johns Hopkins University in November 2017, called Bluefield Innovations, will be funded by Deerfield and particularly focus on potential cures for life-altering diseases.
Ancora Innovation will invest throughout the development process and will support spinouts resulting from the research. It will also offer operational support.
Suitable projects will be selected by a joint operations committee made up of an equal number of representatives from Vanderbilt and Deerfield.
Padma Raghavan, vice-provost for research at Vanderbilt University, said: “This collaboration enhances Vanderbilt’s core mission of improving the quality of human life through research.
“Deerfield is aligned with us in accomplishing this mission, and we look forward to working with them to develop new life-changing and lifesaving therapies.”
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