Cooperating with partners and forming strategic alliances are essential elements of our strategy. We again set up promising new partnerships in 2009. In the United States, our subsidiary EMD Serono entered into an alliance with the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The aim is to provide early insight into potential cancer treatments and to accelerate early clinical research.
In the field of Neurodegenerative Diseases, we formed an exclusive partnership with Fast Forward – a subsidiary of the American National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Within the scope of this partnership, we will evaluate and fund multiple sclerosis research projects. Merck will provide up to US$ 19 million in order to support early-stage clinical development projects with biotech companies and projects with individual researchers or academic institutions. In addition, Merck Serono set up a strategic collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The aim is to advance basic and clinical research in multiple sclerosis.
Merck Serono Ventures is the name of the strategic corporate venture capital fund that we launched in March. It will invest in biotech start-up companies that have the potential to provide innovative products in Merck Serono’s core therapeutic areas. The focus is on Neurodegenerative Diseases, Oncology as well as Autoimmune and Inflammatory Diseases. The fund will invest up to € 40 million over the first five years.
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