AstraZeneca, GSK and J&J partner with academia to establish translational research fund

25 January 2016

UK pharma majors AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), along with the USA’s Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), have partnered with three world-class universities, Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge and University College London (UCL), to create the £40 million ($56.6 million) Apollo Therapeutics Fund.

This pioneering new consortium aims to convert outstanding academic science from the three universities into innovative medicines for a broad range of diseases.

The fund will bring academic preclinical research through to the stage of development stage at which it can either be taken forward by one of the industry members following an internal bidding process or be out-licensed. Each industry member will contribute £10 million over six years to the venture and may provide in-house expertise and additional resources to assist with the commercial evaluation and development of projects. The Tech Transfer Office (TTO) for each university (Imperial Innovations plc, Cambridge Enterprise and UCL Business) is each contributing a further £3.3 million.

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