The pharmaceutical firm has joined forces with Centre for Drug and Research Development to fund new life science therapies.

Pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co is partnering Centre for Drug Research and Development, (CDRD) Canada’s national drug development institute, to form a C$1.5m ($1.2m) fund that will support CDRD projects.

Founded in 2007, the CDRD is a public-private technology incubator and accelerator that supports life science research. It is affiliated with more than 50 universities, six global pharmaceutical companies and 26 entrepreneurs or small and medium-sized enterprises.

Merck-CDRD Innovation Fund will invest in the advancement of CDRD collaborations with academic…