"A new idea now taking hold in academia offers the promise of a path out of the Valley of Death: Universities, whose labs are home to so many of these potentially life-changing discoveries, should raise a philanthropic endowment and use the money to fund the work of the scientists to advance their innovations. By applying the same sort of innovative, out-of-the-box thinking to our financial and philanthropic approach as we have applied in our scientific labs, universities can take major steps in bringing drugs and other therapies to market — and improving people’s lives."
UCSF’s Roopa Ramamoorthi, PhD, writes in STAT how the InVent Fund is designed to keep projects in-house longer, increasing returns and “de-risking” so they become more attractive to investors.