The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. recently awarded a $400,000 grant to a Medical College of Wisconsin program focused on accelerating drug discoveries.
MCW’s Therapeutic Accelerator Program, housed within the school’s Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology’s Drug Discovery Center, works with academic scientists to bring their drug discoveries from concept to commercialization.
The WEDC grant will support the program’s collaborations with other regional biohealth institutions and companies, according to MCW’s announcement.
“We are extremely excited about the new partnership between TAP and the WEDC,” said John Imig, director of the Drug Discovery Center and professor of pharmacology and toxicology at MCW. “This partnership will further enable TAP to make a major impact in southeastern Wisconsin by developing drugs and therapeutics for improving health and quality of life.”
MCW said TAP takes “a pioneering approach to developing new therapeutics” to reduce risk and increase the value of the project for commercialization. Upon the completion of milestones in a funding cycle, TAP plans the next steps and goals to help facilitate licensing, partnerships with biotechnology companies or the launch of a startup.
The grant was awarded through WEDC’s Targeted Industry Projects program, which supports industry cluster and sector development in Wisconsin.
“WEDC’s investment in MCW’s TAP program is a significant gain for southeast Wisconsin,” said Vincent Rice, vice president of sector strategy development for WEDC. “The fund will allow MCW’s program and facilities to reach a larger education community while enabling growth of the entire state’s drug discovery capabilities. This is a major expansion of Wisconsin’s biohealth footprint.”
BizTimes Milwaukee recently spoke with Kevin Boggs, director of MCW’s Office of Technology Development, regarding his department’s efforts to expedite the process of bringing MCW research and inventions to the marketplace.
