GlaxoSmithKline, the world’s second-biggest pharmaceutical company and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) recently (in July, 2008) announced a five-year, $25 million-plus collaborative agreement.

GSK’s investment, one of the largest by a pharmaceutical company in stem cell science, will support innovative research at Harvard University and in at least four Harvard-affiliated hospitals in the areas of neuroscience, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, musculoskeletal diseases and obesity. In addition, GSK will fund an annual grant, which supports early stage research in stem cell biology, as part of HSCI’s seed grant program “GSK believes stem cell science has great potential to aid the discovery of new medicines by improving the screening, identification and development of new compounds. We have carefully chosen the Boston biomedical community to collaborate with on this important venture. It has the highest concentration of leading stem cell scientists, and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute is the epicentre of that community,” said Patrick Vallance, Head of Drug Discovery at GSK.