Broad umbrella

In its $50 million tie-up with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Deerfield Management is looking to forge a new mold of partnership with an academic organization that allows it to efficiently survey early discovery research and form newcos around promising therapeutic candidates with clinical potential.

The deal, announced Oct. 10, gives Deerfield overarching access to invest in any of the technologies being developed at the Broad, while the institute receives funding for five years to allocate to early stage therapeutics research, a strategic partner with operational and financial expertise across the healthcare ecosystem, and an equity stake in any newcos formed via the collaboration...