PHILADELPHIA, PA — University of Pennsylvania, BioNTech SE, and Osage University Partners announced the launch of a $50 million venture capital fund aimed at accelerating early-stage life science companies emerging from Penn research.
The Penn-BioNTech Innovative Therapeutics Seed Fund, known as the PxB Fund, will focus on seed and Series A investments in therapeutics, diagnostics, platforms, and research tools originating from Penn intellectual property or founded by Penn researchers. The initiative is designed to speed the translation of academic discoveries into products for patients worldwide.
The fund follows a decade of outsized scientific output from Penn, whose research teams have helped drive 45 FDA approvals for vaccines and novel treatments, including CAR T cell therapy, and earned a Nobel Prize and four Breakthrough Prizes for Life Sciences.
Managed by OUP, the Philadelphia-based venture firm with more than $800 million under management, the PxB Fund will back Penn-founded startups developing next-generation medicines and tools, including AI-enabled drug discovery platforms targeting serious medical conditions. OUP has invested in more than 150 startups commercializing university research, including over 10 from Penn.
“Penn has a remarkable track record of creating cutting-edge startups,” said Marc Singer, managing partner of OUP, citing recent Penn-linked acquisitions such as Capstan Therapeutics by AbbVie and Interius BioTherapeutics by Kite. He said the fund, combined with BioNTech’s insights, is intended to support the next wave of Penn innovations.
As part of the launch, Anna Turetsky, PhD, a Penn alumna and seasoned biotech investor, was appointed general partner. Turetsky previously invested in early-stage therapeutics companies at Lightstone Ventures and later launched and led the venture arm of the Mark Foundation, including work with Penn on Interius BioTherapeutics.
Penn officials said the fund complements the university’s existing commercialization and incubation programs by providing a focused capital pool to lead financings at the earliest stages of company formation.
“Penn’s mission is not only to perform groundbreaking research, but to ensure those discoveries are translated into real-world solutions,” said John S. Swartley, PhD, MBA, Penn’s chief innovation officer. He called the fund a significant step forward for the university’s innovation ecosystem and for patients.
BioNTech, a pioneer in mRNA-based medicines and next-generation immunotherapies, said the fund will deepen its longstanding scientific and translational ties with Penn while expanding visibility into emerging therapeutic approaches across multiple modalities.
“By partnering with Penn and OUP on this fund, we will have the opportunity to support the next wave of scientific breakthroughs coming out of the university,” said James Ryan, PhD, BioNTech’s chief business officer and chief legal officer.
The PxB Fund will invest exclusively in Penn-based innovations, positioning Philadelphia as a continued hub for life science commercialization rooted in academic research.
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