Yeda plants $130m Orchard Innovations

Yeda Research and Development, the commercialisation arm of Weizmann Institute of Science, yesterday entered into a $130m partnership with healthcare-focused investment firm Deerfield Management.
The partnership, Orchard Innovations, marks Deerfield’s first outside the US where the firm has signed a string of similar initiatives, most recently launching the $130m Four Points Innovations with Duke University last month.
Orchard Innovations has been set up to back research and development projects at Weizmann through various phases of drug exploration and advancement. It will run for 10 years, taking on licensing rights to any intellectual property arising from its portfolio.
A joint committee from Weizmann, Yeda and Deerfield will begin assessing proposals in the coming months, seeking promising drug programs in a wide range of medical fields, including rare and difficult-to-treat illnesses.
Applicants must demonstrate a clear trajectory to attaining investigational new drug status. Follow-on funding from Deerfield is a possibility for projects that reach the clinic.
Weizmann researchers will additionally benefit from Deerfield’s expertise and resources, including its forthcoming $635m innovation campus in New York City, expected to host more than 200,000 square feet of wet lab space.
Deerfield’s earlier academic funds include partnerships with University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University.
In September 2019, the company announced it would invest a total of $2bn by 2030 in drug research and seed-stage proposals.
James Flynn, managing partner at Deerfield Management, said: “Whether its Weizmann’s groundbreaking discoveries that led to the development of novel drugs for multiple sclerosis, immunotherapies that cure certain previously incurable cancers, or its dominance in medical innovation, the institute is consistently on the cutting edge of meaningful and impactful innovations.”