Software Entrepreneur’s Family Pledges $100-Million for AIDS Vaccine

A software entrepreneur and his wife have pledged $100-million through their new family foundation to create an institute dedicated to the discovery of an AIDS vaccine. It will eventually focus on other efforts to prevent diseases that attack the human immune system.

The money for the Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Institute, $10-million a year over a decade, will be shared by Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Ragon is the founder of InterSystems Corporation, based in Cambridge, Mass. His wife, Susan, is the business’s vice president of finance and administration. In mid-December, they created the Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Institute Foundation to support the institute. (Mr. Ragon would not disclose the size of the initial donation, but said it was at least $10-million).

The announcement comes 16 months after the pharmaceutical company Merck halted further tests of a much-touted HIV vaccine, after it failed to prevent new infections in a clinical trial. The vaccine’s failure was seen as a major setback in the fight against the AIDS epidemic.

‘Collaborative Effort’

The new institute will aim to solve the scientific problems behind the discovery of an AIDS vaccine by integrating researchers from different fields, including engineering, and by relieving them of some of the pressures of applying for federal grant money.

“So much research is unfunded, and what research is funded is typically conducted in small, isolated labs,” said Mr. Ragon. “It became clear to me that the kind of flexible funding I could provide really was the key to transforming the way scientific research is conducted in this field.”

Bruce Walker, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the institute’s new director, praised the institute’s collaborative approach in a statement, saying it “will let top researchers from some of the best institutions in the world apply their full creative potential to problems of tremendous global importance.”

Housed at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Ragon Institute will also work with other organizations trying to find an AIDS vaccine, including the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a nonprofit group in New York.

While the center will focus initially on developing an AIDS vaccine, it has a broader mission to prevent diseases by harnessing the strength of the human immune system.

Mr. Ragon said he first met Mr. Walker two years ago, after the researcher learned of his company’s office in South Africa and shared some information about AIDS work in the country. Two weeks later, the pair was on a plane to Africa, where they visited with AIDS patients.

“You can just imagine how devastating that experience was,” Mr. Ragon said. “And I began to discuss with Bruce what it was I could do to help.”