AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline,and Johnson & Johnson have partnered with three universities, Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge and University College London (UCL), to create the Apollo Therapeutics Fund. This new consortium aims to convert the 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.

An independent Drug Discovery Team of ex-industry scientists will be employed by the Fund to work with the universities and their TTOs in identifying and shaping projects at an early stage, optimizing the chances of their onward development. The Apollo Investment Committee, comprising representatives from each member organization, will make all investment decisions. All therapy areas and all modalities (including small molecules, peptides, proteins, antibodies, cell and gene therapies) are in scope. For projects that become successful therapies, the originating university and TTO will receive 50% of future commercial revenues or out-licensing fees and the remaining 50% will be divided among all Apollo members.

Source: AstraZeneca