Arix Bioscience said today it has committed $25 million in capital to BioMotiv under a strategic investment partnership formed by the global healthcare and life science company and the accelerator.

The partnership is intended to enable wider-ranging support for university-sourced projects and discoveries. Arix will be able to co-invest and spin out project companies from BioMotiv, and will nominate a member of its management team to serve as a member of the BioMotiv Advisory Board, which oversees the screening and selection of the accelerator’s projects.

Arix—formerly Perceptive Bioscience Investments—sources, finances, and develops businesses addressing medical innovation at all stages of development. The company received initial funding led by Woodford Investment Management and other institutional investors.

“We are delighted to have formed this strategic partnership with BioMotiv and it demonstrates our support for medical innovation at all stages of development,” Arix CEO Joe Anderson, Ph.D., said in a statement.

Dr. Anderson, formerly a partner with the investment firm Abingworth, co-founded Arix along with its chairman Jonathan Peacock, formerly CFO of Amgen and Novartis Pharma; and deputy chairman Professor Sir Christopher Evans, OBE.

Launched in 2012, BioMotiv is the for-profit accelerator of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, a $250 million effort focused on commercializing drugs developed by physician scientists throughout the U.S. and U.K. The project is centered at University Hospitals, and also includes the not-for-profit Harrington Discovery Institute.

BioMotiv has seven portfolio companies, of which two have partnerships with biopharma giants—Orca Pharmaceuticals, which last year inked an up-to-$122.5 million autoimmune disease alliance with AstraZeneca; and Dual Therapeutics, which in January teamed up with Bristol-Myers Squibb in an up-to-$255 million-plus cancer collaboration.

“Through the partnership, BioMotiv and its companies can leverage Arix’s expertise, networks, and financial support to more rapidly and successfully accelerate breakthrough discoveries into medicines,” BioMotiv CEO Baiju R. Shah added.

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