ALBANY, N.Y. & NEW YORK–(April 26, 2021 08:00 AM EDT)–Deerfield Management Company, a healthcare investment firm focused on advancing healthcare through investment, information and philanthropy, and the Empire Discovery Institute (EDI) have formed a translational research partnership to accelerate the development of novel therapeutics. Through the partnership Deerfield expects to invest up to $65 million over the next five years to translate scientific discoveries with potential applications for patients.
The EDI is a non-profit New York drug discovery and development accelerator created to translate important academic discoveries into new medicines for commercialization by providing strategic support and pharmaceutical development expertise. The EDI works in partnership with research labs at the University of Rochester, the University at Buffalo, and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Through a newly launched company called Empire Deerfield Discovery & Development LLC (ED3), funding and support will be available for projects in high-need therapeutic areas, as well as those targeting patients who suffer from hard-to-treat and rare diseases, to accelerate them towards clinical validation in patients and commercialization.
“EDI was founded to help overcome the key challenges often faced by life science researchers in academia, namely a lack of external funding to advance pre-clinical development and access to pharmaceutical industry expertise to advance programs in an efficient manner to the clinic. Our partnership with Deerfield will enable us to accelerate our mission to identify medically important targets for human disease to facilitate the creation and development of novel, highly differentiated new therapeutics,” said Martin Graham PhD, CEO of the Empire Discovery Institute.
“We are deeply grateful to the leadership of New York State for their ongoing support for the Empire Discovery Institute. The new investment by Deerfield will strengthen this unique partnership between research institutions in Rochester and Buffalo, help accelerate the process of bringing new drugs to marke