UM s Kelly Sexton: Biotech industry continues to thrive, find new solutions
Leisa Thompson
Kelly Sexton is associate vice president for research, technology transfer and innovation partnerships at University of Michigan.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Last May, the University of Michigan inked a $130 million deal with New York City health care investment firm Deerfield Management Co. LP in an effort to ramp up drug commercialization efforts coming out of the Ann Arbor university s tech transfer office. The deal created Great Lakes Discoveries LLC as the vehicle to drive those developments. The partnership is still in the early stages, said
Kelly Sexton, the university s associate vice president for research, technology transfer and innovation partnerships. But it s indicative of the need to grow more biotechnology at the university level and figure out ways to bring it to market, Sexton said.
DBusiness Magazine
Biotech Boom
As Ann Arbor begins to fulfill its potential as a dynamic biotech hub, the broader impact could be profound.
Cameron McCausland // Photograph by Austin Phillips
There are few circumstances that better illustrate the importance of biomedical innovation than what’s happening in society right now. Across the country and around the world, the potential for new ideas, new medicines, and new therapeutic options to, quite literally, change lives has perhaps never been more apparent.
Biotech breakthroughs require not only cutting-edge scientific and medical resources and expertise, but the necessary entrepreneurial energy to create and sustain them. It’s a rare and valuable combination.