Finding new therapies and medicines for some of the world’s most perplexing and deadly diseases won’t happen with a same-old, same-old mindset. And that’s why, in late 2018, UNC-Chapel Hill and Deerfield Management set out to build something new. By bringing together Carolina’s world-class life sciences research expertise with Deerfield’s funding resources and deep industry experience in drug development, the two organizations launched Pinnacle Hill. After launching less than two years ago, the company has been busy scoping, supporting and launching new research projects and engaging with faculty in discussions about new potential treatments that they envision in the not-so-distant future.
Since its launch, Pinnacle Hill has set the foundation for identifying potential faculty research projects and working with faculty to accelerate the development of their ideas and technologies into new medicines that address the significant unmet medical needs of our times. Answers to two of these pressing medical needs are being pursued by the first faculty projects currently funded by Pinnacle Hill: multiple myeloma, a devastating cancer that develops in bone marrow, and Angelman syndrome, a neuro-genetic disorder characterized by developmental delays, abnormal brain activity and severe seizures. Neither of these conditions currently has a cure.
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