Harvard University R&D lab picked up $ 100 million in hedge fund cash

Harvard University researchers should be able to get medication to the market much faster after a hedge fund plowed $ 100 million into a new research and development partnership.

Deerfield Management, a specialized healthcare investor, will provide the means to create a common capacity called Lab1636, a nod to the University's foundation date.

Funding will go towards groundbreaking life sciences and biomedical research with the aim of developing new therapeutic agents for market use.

Harvard has launched more than 70 startups over the past five years, most of them life science companies, according to university officials, quoted in the Boston Globe.

Deerfield is no stranger to investing in universities, and has similar deals in place with other entities such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Deerfield has been profitable for at least the last five years, according to Institutional Investor. The Guarantee Fund has reported double-digit returns in four of the last five years, and achieved almost 1[ads1]1% in 2018 – once when large equity indices ended the year.

R&D projects funded by Lab1636 will be selected by a Joint Consultative Committee.

"By working with an alliance partner who is prepared to support early stage research and invest in the success of preclinical and clinical stage commercial development, we improve the opportunities for Harvard's life-changing innovations to reach patients in need," said Isaac Kohlberg, senior assistant professor and chief engineering officer at Harvard.