Bridging the Valley for Rare Disease Drug Development

​The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre represents a transatlantic alliance created to bridge academic research and drug development for rare diseases. Founded in 2019 by the United Kingdom’s University of Oxford and the Cleveland-based Harrington Discovery Institute, the center leverages Oxford's world-class rare disease research and Harrington's pharmaceutical-scale expertise to address translational challenges and advance promising therapies for rare diseases lacking approved treatments. We spoke to Matthew Wood, director of the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre, about the challenges of rare disease drug development, the resources the center brings to address them, and the mechanisms it has established to accelerate therapeutic development.