The Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund (CBIF) is investing $10 million in a new program that hopes to speed commercialization of bioscience research.
The Program in Innovative Therapeutics for Connecticut’s Health (PITCH) will vet UConn and Yale researchers’ ideas for commercial viability, with the goal of forming new companies.
The program was first pitched to BioInnovation Fund overseer Connecticut Innovations earlier this year as a way to help scientists overcome the so-called “valley of death” in which their research isn’t commercialized.
PITCH is headed by Yale professor Craig Crews. Its executive committee also includes Dennis Wright, UConn professor of medicinal chemistry; Margaret Cartiera, CBIF manager and CI vice president; and Susan Froshauer, president and CEO of bioscience industry association CURE.
“This program directly aligns with the overall mission of our fund,” Cartiera said in a statement. “Not only does this program create collaborative links among Connecticut’s college institutions, but it also encourages the commercialization of research coming out of the universities.”
CI has approved $16.9 million in CBIF funding since the fund launched in early 2014, a spokeswoman said.
PITCH’s advisory board, which will vet bioscience research, includes a mix of scientists and venture capitalists, including current and past executives of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Bayer Healthcare, Roche Sequencing Solutions and other organizations.
Crews, who is PITCH’s principal investigator, co-founded a company in 2003 called Proteolix using Yale intellectual property. It sold in 2009 to Onyx Pharmaceuticals.
