NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute has received a $1 million pledge from longtime trustee Arthur Brody toward commercializing the institution's discoveries into drug treatments.
The gift from Brody — a philanthropist and the president of Brosoar, a management and administrative service for business and personal investments in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., — will create the Art Brody Innovation Fund, "which will advance promising research that might otherwise be stalled due to lack of financial support," the institute said in a statement.
According to Sanford-Burnham, the fund will be used for refining the development of early drug candidates at the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, advancing many of those medicines into clinical trials, and attracting investors.
The fund will also provide seed capital for companies formed to commercialize Sanford-Burnham discoveries, the institute said in a statement.
Brody is also a co-founder and member of the advisory council of Sorrento Ventures, a San Diego-based venture capital firm.
In 2008, he helped launch a venture philanthropy fund for Sanford-Burnham predecessor Burnham Institute for Medical Research, to be used for later-stage research projects and for potential investments in Burnham spinout companies.