Oregon Health & Science University joins BioPontis Alliance to advance research discoveries

Health Care , Research

Oregon Health & Science University has joined the University Partnership of BioPontis Alliance, becoming the ninth premier institution engaged in the partnership to improve how discoveries made in laboratories at academic research centers translate into public benefit.

With the agreement, BioPontis Alliance will work to identify innovative and translational science with the potential to become treatments for cancer, neurological disorders, inflammation and infectious diseases. BioPontis Alliance will provide both a direct investment in support of academic inventors as well as a network of partners to challenge the viability of new drug targets or drug compounds; those that successfully stand the challenge will be advanced to generate the proof of principle data that pharmaceutical licensors require as a foundation for real-world treatments and cures. 

“OHSU is pleased to be the first West Coast partner to join this group of leading institutions,” said OHSU President Joe Robertson, M.D., M.B.A. “We’re excited to begin work with BioPontis Alliance to identify promising inventions and leverage our research expertise in an effort to accelerate the lab to market process.”

BioPontis is a unique hybrid firm that combines early-stage capital investment with early-stage drug development. It has formed agreements with three leaders in the pharmaceutical industry: Merck, Pfizer and the Janssen Biotech unit of Johnson & Johnson. BioPontis Alliance uses its knowledge of these companies’ product priorities to seek out and evaluate relevant drug research at its Alliance universities. At the same time, the pharmaceutical partners contribute to the design of crucial drug development objectives, ensuring that new drug candidates meet their technical and regulatory standards.

“We have sought out research institutions like OHSU where there are world-class scientists working in an environment that shares our commitment to the translation of the types of innovation that can truly improve human health care outcomes,” said Bio Pontis Alliance’s Chief Scientific Officer, Henri Lichenstein, Ph.D. “OHSU is well aligned with our mission to unleash the value chain of discovery through greater development productivity. It is a natural fit for BioPontis Alliance to partner with OHSU in our economic and scientific sharing model. We expect that our relationship will not only bring OHSU inventions into the product development limelight, but also that we will benefit from access to some special capabilities and resources here.”

In addition to OHSU, the BioPontis University Alliance partners include:

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