UNC and GlaxoSmithKline pledge to cure AIDS

Since 1981, when UNC Hospitals admitted its first patient with AIDS, UNC has worked toward the bold goal of curing a patient with HIV.

Now UNC hopes to accelerate the discovery of a cure for AIDS by partnering with GlaxoSmithKline, a world leader in AIDS research.

“Bringing this disease to an end is the right ambition,” Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, said. “It was almost undreamable back in the 1980s and early ’90s, but it now feels achievable.”

The partnership was announced Monday by Witty and Chancellor Carol Folt.

UNC and GSK will open a new center on UNC’s campus entirely dedicated to AIDS research. The HIV Cure Center will continue UNC’s legacy of innovative AIDS research through funding and support from GSK. The center will initially employ 20 full-time scientists.

David Margolis, who will serve as the director for the center, said UNC and GSK have entered a business model that will merge the research of two world-renowned scientific communities.

“We’ve been working on this for 10 years,” Margolis said. “Now it’s just a restructuring with new scientists and a new funding mechanism.”

UNC and GSK will also jointly own a new company based on UNC’s campus, Qura Therapeutics, which will handle business operations associated with the HIV Cure Center.

The company will be responsible for generating funding for research and the commercialization of any products that come out of the center.

UNC brings to the table $6 million for a new laboratory space, a team of faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students, patient databases and more than 30 years of institutional knowledge about AIDS research. Due to rules regarding company-funded projects, Margolis said undergraduate students might not be allowed to work in the center.

GSK will provide $20 million in funding over five years, a team of 10 researchers and a global network of labs and scientists.

Folt and Margolis said this partnership is unprecedented because UNC and GSK will each own half of the new company.

Margolis said the partnership is structured so that GSK can provide funding for the HIV Cure Center while allowing UNC to retain some rights to the research.

“This is a highly unusual structure, but it will allow our team to actively embrace the commercialization and integrate the science, drug development and manufacturing that will be necessary to address this cure from all angles,” Folt said at the press conference.

Usually when a University’s research is funded by an outside institution, that institution has first ownership rights to the innovations that come out of the research. Margolis said the 50-50 structure used by UNC and GSK allows for a more equal partnership.

“What’s unique about this is the co-ownership model between UNC and GSK,” Margolis said. “It means that any intellectual property created by the center will have joint ownership between the partners. Right now that’s not so complicated because it’s just two, but as this partnership grows, it will become more unusual.”

The venture is designed to welcome new partners from the public and private sector.

“I hope the teams will be inspired by the idea that we are setting up today with a 50-50 partnership between one of the great universities in the world and one of the great companies in the world — inspired by the notion of openness and collaboration, of recognizing that sharing excellence from wherever it comes is more likely to create something even more special than hoarding and keeping our secrets to ourselves,” Witty said.

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