UCB establishes innovative collaboration with Harvard University

UCB announced today that it has concluded an innovative research collaboration agreement with Harvard University. UCB will bring its expertise on antibody generation and medicinal chemistry into the alliance and will provide up to $6 million over two years to fund specific innovative research projects led by Harvard scientists. The collaboration focuses on Central Nervous System (CNS) and immunology, two key research domains for UCB.

This collaborative alliance will advance ongoing Harvard research projects along the drug development pathway and therefore creates a unique drug discovery bridge between industry and academia, with Harvard scientists continuing their research that holds potential for the development of new therapeutic modalities in clinical medicine.

“The aim of our alliance with Harvard is to create a two-way exchange of knowledge and expertise that will facilitate the successful development of innovative new drugs. This collaboration is the latest milestone in our new innovation model in UCB NewMedicines,” says Ismail Kola, President of UCB NewMedicines™.

UCB’s new innovation model aims to capitalize on external scientific advances, resources and expertise through dedicated collaborations that complement its unique internal capabilities.

Harvard and UCB will have regular selection meetings to determine which other ongoing Harvard projects to fund during the collaboration. The first research project funded under the Harvard-UCB alliance is a collaboration with Professor Gökhan S. Hotamisligil, M.D., Ph.D., Chair, Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, to generate and develop antibodies against an exciting target with potential application in a range of diseases including diabetes and metabolic disorders.

“We are delighted to enter into this innovative collaboration with UCB, one of many sought by Harvard which joins together leaders in academia and industry to expedite groundbreaking research more rapidly from the lab to the clinic,” said Isaac T. Kohlberg, Harvard’s Chief Technology Development Officer and head of its Office of Technology Development. “It exemplifies Harvard’s growing commitment to collaborate with industry in creative ways that will advance the boundaries of translational research, thereby realizing our core mission to serve the public interest”