National Hemophilia Foundation launches research fund

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The National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) in the U.S. has announced the launch of Pathway to Cures (P2C), a new venture philanthropy investment fund focused on creating transformational impact across all inheritable blood disorders. 

Investing alongside and partnering with traditional private capital funds and other industry organizations, P2C hopes to spur the development of inheritable blood disorder therapies, treatments, and technologies, changing the lives of the inheritable blood disorders community.

P2C is being launched as an open-ended fund with an initial $3.5 million commitment from the NHF as it begins fundraising and partnership outreach to raise $20 million over the next several years as it invests in companies that demonstrate significant potential for transformational impact for the inheritable blood disorders community.

Untapped investment

“I am honored to have this opportunity to use impact investing to innovate disease philanthropy and advance cures for inheritable blood disorders,” said Teri Willey, who will be joining NHF as the managing director at P2C. 

“We believe there is a significant untapped investment opportunity and unmet need for supporting biotech companies in the clinical development of inheritable blood disorders therapies regardless of the indication or the size of the affected population.”

One of the critical components of P2C’s investment strategy is attracting outside private capital from traditional venture capital funds to invest alongside the fund. They hope this will fill the early-stage funding gap that has been a major roadblock to development of therapies available for treating inheritable blood disorders. 

Identifying opportunities

P2C offers the competitive advantage of its team’s background in inheritable blood disorders research, coupled with access to the NHF’s relationships with scientific research organizations and clinical experts. 

This will help P2C, which will be governed separately to the NHF, to identify the best and highest-impact investment opportunities and reduce risk for private capital partners. 

The global inheritable blood disorders treatment market is worth $14 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to $20.6 billion by 2027, according to Marketdataforecast.com.

According to Willey, this market data is incomplete and only looks at treatments for the three disorders with the highest prevalence, and it doesn’t account for the hundreds of other inheritable blood disorders that exist and can’t be treated. 

“This to us signals a significant unmet need and investment opportunity,” she said.  

Kevin Mills, chief scientific officer at NHF and head of P2C’s scientific advisory board, said, “P2C will work in support of NHF’s overarching mission of a world without inheritable blood disorders as we create and accelerate the pathway for new life-changing therapies and treatments.”

Re-investment opportunity

As a venture philanthropy vehicle, P2C’s fund allows any realized gains from investment to be recycled back into the fund for re-investment, magnifying the impact of donor dollars in as many high-quality opportunities as possible.

Inheritable blood disorders is a category consisting of a range of disorders caused by any mutation in the clotting cascade of arteries that affects the normal properties of blood. The impact on those living with these disorders can range from benign to severe, and currently there are more than 20 million people living with inheritable blood disorders that have no cures, many of which don’t have an approved option for treatment, according to the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.

“P2C will address global unmet needs and generate the greatest impact for the most people in the shortest time possible,” said Lenard Valentino, NHF chief executive officer and president of NHF.

“NHF will continue in its role as the global leader in inheritable blood disorder research and community advocacy.”

Explore other topics: Blood disordersFundingUSA