Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center www.wakehealth.edu is going to create a Technology Development Program, a $15 million program to develop the ideas, discoveries, and inventions coming from faculty and staff at the Medical Center to benefit patients in the community and worldwide.
The new Technology Development Program will work in partnership with Pappas Capital www.pappas-capital.com, a life science investment firm located in Durham North Carolina. Funds will be managed by Pappas in collaboration with Wake Forest Innovations to advance clinically important life science technologies for licensing to help established companies or startups.
Wake Forest Innovations expects to work with Pappas Capital to invest in about 25 early-stage technologies over the next three to five years. The Technology Development Program will seek matching funds from foundations, non-profits, industry, and other life science organizations.
“With our investment experience and the innovation culture at Wake Forest, the Technology Development Program is a perfect fit,” said Art Pappas, CEO Pappas Capital. He added, “For nearly two decades the company has managed venture capital funds through the business unit at Pappas Ventures.”
According to Eric Tomlinson, D.Sc., PhD, Chief Innovation Officer at the Medical Center, “Our relationship with Pappas will help bring our faculty and researchers together with Pappas’ extensive network of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device companies, and disease-focused philanthropic foundations.”