We are excited to announce that two new pharma partners — Eli Lilly and Company and Bristol Myers Squibb — have joined the Milner Consortium in the past month. Now with ten pharma partners and three academic partners, this has become one of the largest cross-sector Biomedical Consortia in the UK that is working in target discovery across multiple disease areas and emerging technologies.
Lilly, whose UK headquarters are in Basingstoke, will bring a key focus on Cancer, Diabetes, Immunology, Pain and Neurodegeneration. Natalia Novac (Senior Director, Emerging Technology and Innovation) and Hugh Nuthall (Senior Director, Search and Evaluation, Neurodegeneration) will join our Innovation Board. “Lilly is really delighted to become part of the Milner Therapeutics Consortium and we are excited at the opportunities to build new research partnerships within this world-class network of academic science” says Hugh Nuthall.
Bristol Myers Squibb, with UK headquarters in Uxbridge, is focused on research in Oncology, Haematology, Immunology, Cardiovascular disease, Neuroscience and Fibrotic disease. James Carmichael (Vice President, integrative Science, Europe) and Sue Bailey (Strategic Partnerships and Early Access Director, UK&I) will initially join the Innovation Board. “We are absolutely delighted to be joining the Milner Consortium. This important Academia/Industry collaboration offers many exciting scientific opportunities and we look forward to actively participating in the programme” says James Carmichael.
To date, the Consortium companies have invested £4 million in academic-industry collaborations in Cambridge. The know-how of these new partners will dovetail well with our existing partners and bring new synergies for multi-company projects with significant benefit for local academics. “We are thrilled to welcome these new partners, and excited about the additional opportunities that will be driven by this mass of expertise in the Consortium” says Deputy Director Kathryn Chapman.