New joint venture aims to 'open' funding opportunities for early medicines discovery

Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) and We Share Ventures have announced a new joint venture which is set to pilot a funding model aimed at opening new funding opportunities for early-stage medicines discovery.

In a statement, the partner organisations said that accessing catalytic funding has historically been a challenge for medicines discovery start-ups.

The new pilot scheme will combine We Share’s impact-driven revolving funding model with MDC Syndicate’s programme, enabling promising start-ups in the medicine discovery space access to long-term capital in the early phases of their growth.

We Share’s approach is based on a share-it-forward principle, where grants are raised via philanthropic donations and awarded to relevant start-ups with favourable conditions – a long-term repayment, based on success milestones. As a result, this creates a 'revolving funding pool' to support new generation impact-driven start-ups.

Chris Molloy, chief executive officer of Medicines Discovery Catapult, said: “Impact investment is an ideal source of funding for medicines discovery. It is long-term, people-centred, scalable and accessible to all. This fits and fuels the patient-centred R&D engine that the Syndicates have pioneered, and is an exciting innovation in drug discovery.”

Launching in Autumn 2021, MDC and We Share will hold a call for applications for start-ups across Europe with preclinical-stage medicines discovery projects aiming to address patient need in cystic fibrosis-related infections, hearing loss and tinnitus and psychiatric disorders.