$50M gift from the Blavatnik Family Foundation
The Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Len Blavatnik, M.B.A. ’89, has donated $50 million to Harvard University. The gift will launch a major initiative to expedite the development of basic science discoveries into new, breakthrough therapies for patients and cures for disease. The gift underpins Harvard’s growing commitment to creating an entrepreneurial culture in the life sciences. Support for early-stage research and new inventions is vital to bridge the most challenging obstacle in university technology development, known as the “development gap” — the period of validating and building value around early-stage technologies, making them ripe for partnering with industry. The Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator will identify early-stage, highly promising technologies, upgrade their value, and prepare them for licensing and commercial development. The gift will also create the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship Program at Harvard Business School (HBS) to provide M.B.A. students with experience in life science entrepreneurship through exposure to the...