Oxford University, Oxford University Innovation (OUI), Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) and Evotec have formed a new public-private alliance to help progress the development of new medicines stemming from Oxford research.
The three-year ‘LAB282’ partnership will provide a £13 million fund which biomedical scientists at Oxford can tap into to underpin their research, as well as an expert in residence in the University to aid a quick turnaround of findings into new drug discovery and development programmes.
New projects will be sourced exclusively from Oxford University researchers the university’s research commercialisation company OUI, funding will come from OSI, its dedicated IP investment group, and Evotec will contribute drug discovery expertise and platforms to develop them.
Projects funded by LAB282 that yield positive results will be spun out from the university to further develop any new therapies, with help from the alliance.
“This pioneering approach addresses a major unmet need by engaging LAB282’s partners, together offering world class medical research, commercial drug discovery expertise and facilities, and significant investment resources,” said Dr Adam Stoten, head of Technology Transfer, Life Sciences at OUI.
“UK universities are at the forefront of collaborative public-private drug discovery partnerships with the goal of changing the course of human health in the interest of patients, healthcare and the economy”.
Dr Cord Dohrmann, chief scientific officer of Evotec, said LAB282 is “a highly innovative partnership that elegantly combines core strengths of academia, biotech, venture capital and strong links to Pharma under one ‘roof’.”
“Casting a wide net in terms of indications and technologies it is designed to accelerate in particular first-in-class and potentially disruptive early stage projects to value inflection points that will facilitate the formation of companies”.
