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Rockland-based biopharmaceutical EMD Serono Inc. and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society are joining hands to work on combined research projects, with the corporation’s parent bankrolling the venture with as much as $19 million.
EMD Serono, a subsidiary of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, has a two-year agreement with the MS Society, which could continue an additional three years. More specifically, EMD Serono will be collaborating with New York-based Fast Forward LLC, itself a wholly-owned nonprofit subsidiary of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Fast Forward’s purpose is to connect research and drug development. To that end, it partners with early stage biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to advance drug development, diagnostics, medical devices, and other technologies to treat multiple sclerosis. Fast Forward attempts to develop these treatments as quickly as possibly.
The collaboration with EMD Serono has a goal of accelerating the research and development of a group of handpicked projects. The project proposals will be jointly developed by EMD Serono and Fast Forward, with Merck KGaA providing the $19 million. The cash will support early stage clinical development projects with biotechs, as well as projects involving individual researchers or academic facilities. The cash will be used to make up for funding gaps in the drug development processes for the most promising drug candidates.
Fast Forward will issue requests for proposals in the second quarter this year. The first funds will be released by December 2009, and Fast Forward’s board of directors will manage and approve all payments.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, inflammatory disease of the central nervous system.
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