Michael Hund
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- Milken Institute57 min
Rewriting the Rules: Scaling Innovation for Rare Diseases | Global Conference 2026
Becky Quick, Nicola Blackwood, David Fajgenbaum, Michael Hund, Neil Kumar, William H. Lewis
Panelists including David, Will Osborn, and Michael discussed how AI-driven repurposing of generic drugs and patient-led "venture cure" models are accelerating the discovery of treatments for the over 300 million people globally affected by rare diseases. The dialogue highlighted transformative regulatory shifts, such as the UK's newborn sequencing trials and FDA-authorized umbrella CRISPR studies, which aim to bypass traditional trial inefficiencies while addressing barriers like pricing models that stifle global drug launches. Ultimately, the event concluded that converging data infrastructure with proactive patient advocacy is essential to de-risk development and deliver rapid therapeutic interventions for currently untreatable conditions.
- Milken Institute55 min
Venture Philanthropy in Action: A Case Study of EB Research Partnership and ProQR
Kristin Schneeman, Michael Hund, Alex Silver, Daniel de Boer, Mark de Souza, Esther Krofa
In a 2020 webinar moderated by Michael Hund of the EB Research Partnership (EBRP), experts Alex Silver, Daniel DeBoer, and Mark D'Souza detailed EBRP's venture philanthropy model, which invests capital in for-profit enterprises to de-risk intellectual property in exchange for financial returns rather than traditional grants. The discussion highlighted a successful collaboration with ProQR Therapeutics that led to the rapid formation of Wings Therapeutics, a structure leveraging equity and milestone-based royalties to accelerate Epidermolysis Bullosa drug development by years. By prioritizing specialized legal counsel and strategic flexibility over standard nonprofit conventions, EBRP aims to catalyze over 30 clinical trials and shift rare disease treatment timelines from years to months while generating competitive financial returns.