The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) addresses one of the biggest challenges facing the life sciences sector today: how to translate commercially promising health research conducted at the university level into innovative new therapies that improve and save lives. There are frequent stories in the news with headlines such as “Exciting new breakthrough brings hope to patients.” But what happens to these breakthroughs? Do all these discoveries develop into life-saving therapies? Most often, the answer is ‘no’ because the universities and/or small companies that have made these discoveries don’t have the specialized expertise, equipment and/or funding to develop the ground-breaking research into innovative new medicines.