Elanco Animal Health Inc. (NYSE: ELAN) announced a four-year collaborative research agreement with Purdue University and Purdue Research Foundation with a goal to collaborate and train talent as they seek solutions to some of the greatest challenges in animal health.
The partnership allows Elanco to work side-by-side with Purdue’s leading life science research scientists with specific expertise in animal science, structural biology, protein evolution and engineering, microbiome discovery and clinical veterinary medicine. Elanco and Purdue’s Life Sciences Institutes will conduct collaborative research in Purdue’s world-class laboratories as part of the agreement.
“This alliance with Purdue adds momentum toward Elanco’s promise to rigorously innovate for the benefit of our customers and improve the health of animals,” said Aaron Schacht, Elanco executive vice president for innovation, regulatory and business development. “Purdue’s dedication to delivering solutions has propelled the institution into amassing strengths in a wide array of disciplines and is a natural partner of choice.”
The agreement includes the potential for seven types of research collaborations, five intellectual property opportunities and to support Elanco research team goals to turn ideas and technical needs into results that aim to improve animal health care in structural biology.
As a land-grant university, Purdue has long been rooted in a foundation of agriculture, natural sciences, life sciences and educating tomorrow’s leaders. In the U.S. News and World Report rankings, Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine is 13th among U.S. colleges of veterinary medicine.
“Purdue and Elanco are working on ways to improve the animal health and their food intake to increase the absorption of important nutrients consumed by animals using state-of-the-art tools,” said Richard Kuhn, the Trent and Judith Anderson Distinguished Professor in Science in the Purdue Department of Biological Sciences. “This new agreement is a great opportunity to expand the collaborations between Purdue and Elanco because this type of research is a strength for both of us, and we anticipate the research will have a strong global impact.”
The collaboration will:
- Dramatically shorten the time to take projects from idea or technical need stage into active work by setting up a defined scheme of collaboration types and intellectual property management.
- Support a visiting scholar in structural biology who will work with Purdue scientists.
- Train future professionals to meet the needs in today’s workforce.
“Elanco and Purdue have a strong alignment of mission and values, and we anticipate many positive results from this important alliance,” said Brian Edelman, Purdue Research Foundation president. “This partnership is designed to educate students on real-industry problems, advance research endeavors, provide collaboration opportunities with skilled research scientists and laboratories, and train the next generation of our workforce.”
This alliance among Elanco, Purdue University and the Purdue Research Foundation also will advance research endeavors such as collaborative discovery, co-development of new innovations and advance existing technologies with joint access to mutual resources and capabilities.