CHAPEL HILL — UNC-Chapel Hill announced Monday that it was partnering with Deerfield Management to create Pinnacle Hill LLC, a company seeking to discovery new medicines for unmet medical needs.
New research at Pinnacle Hill will be supported by funding, expert drug development guidance, project management and business strategy, the release says. Deerfield has agreed to provide $65 in funding and drug development expertise for promising new drug research across a range of therapeutic areas.
UNC-CH’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine have drug discovery teams and resources for the development of new drugs and therapies. The partnership hopes to improve the product development process while scientists can focus on research.
Pinnacle Hill
“This is a very exciting new partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and Deerfield Management. In creating a new company, Pinnacle Hill, we are bringing together the best of academia and industry to accelerate innovative drug research,” said Chancellor Carol Folt in a release. “By investing in our faculty’s early stage research, this partnership advances our commitment to improving the health and well-being of people around the world.”
New York-based Deerfield invests in health care companies.
Pinnacle Hill will work on projects approved by a joint committee of members from both UNC-CH and Deerfield leadership teams, the release says. Each project can potentially receive funding to support further investigation for new drug enabling studies.
The first UNC-CH members of the joint committee will include: Terry Magnuson, UNC-CH vice chancellor for research and the Sarah Graham Kenan professor of genetics; Dr. Dhiren Thakker, distinguished professor and interim dean of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and interim director of the Eshelman Institute for Innovation; and Dr. Blossom Damania, the Boshamer distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology and vice dean for research in the UNC-CH School of Medicine.
Selected projects will have a complete development plan with funding to support other research on the UNC-CH’s campus. Deerfield can choose to make further investments in successful projects. Any profits will be shared by Deerfield and UNC-CH.
“UNC-Chapel Hill’s world-class scientists, research centers and institutes, including the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, have enabled a culture of innovation with a focus on the patient and novel discoveries,” James Flynn, managing partner of Deerfield Management, said in the press release. “This will play a critical role in our collaboration to help solve problems, discover new technologies and hopefully save lives.”
This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism
