Between declining government funding for research and a difficult drug development arena marked by higher costs, greater risk, and more competition for less capital, multiple myeloma is at a crossroads. Cures are within reach, but to realize them, the community needs to confront these challenges head-on—something the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) is uniquely poised to do.
One of the most important ways we’ll push the field forward now is through the Myeloma Investment Fund (MIF), our venture philanthropy arm. Over the last six years, the MIF has helped advance six treatments to clinical trials, invested $23 million in 20 companies, and generated a two-to-fourfold return on its initial investment in three of those companies.
Now, the MIF is scaling up when myeloma needs it most and will soon become a self-sustaining, evergreen fund— reinvesting all the returns it generates into new companies and ideas.
The MIF is the first and only mission-driven philanthropic venture fund focused on accelerating a cure for multiple myeloma. The MIF provides biotechnology companies with financial and strategic support, access to data, and connections to investors, researchers, and pharma representatives.
Not only that, but the MIF leverages the MMRF’s vast expertise and its more than 25 years at the forefront of myeloma research.
“We join the boards of many of these companies and play an important advisory role,” said MIF Managing Director Stephanie Oestreich, PhD, MPA.
The companies the MIF invests in are developing some of the most transformative potential treatments in myeloma—with a special focus on relapsed patients who have run out of options.
“An estimated 70 percent of new therapeutic targets are being developed by venture-backed companies, and only 30 percent are with pharma,” Oestreich said. “Venture capital like the kind the MIF provides is critical to move tomorrow’s innovations forward.”
MIF investments provide funding at a pivotal point in the drug development process, when early breakthroughs are at risk of stalling because they lack funding or direction. By stepping in at this phase, the MIF helps bridge the gap between research and real-world application.
“At a time when early-stage funding is harder to secure than ever, the MIF’s early support is essential—helping companies attract more investors and ensure that the best new ideas in myeloma don’t get left behind,” the MMRF’s President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Andreini said.
MIF-backed companies are working on some of the most exciting new technologies and developments today: next-generation CAR T-cell designs and treatments (such as in vivo CAR T, which engineer T-cells in a patient’s body instead of a lab), natural killer cell–directed therapies, antibody-drug conjugates (which have revolutionized treatment of other cancers), and more. Our portfolio also includes companies investigating novel ways to improve patients’ immune response to better recognize, attack, and kill myeloma cells.
The companies the MIF invests in are also highly regarded. In fact, in September, two such companies—Umoja and Stylus Medicine—made Endpoints’ annual list of the 11 most exciting biotech startups of 2025. Endpoints is one of the most prestigious news outlets covering biopharma, and its annual Endpoints 11 list is highly anticipated in the field—representing “the best and the brightest in biotech.”
Andrew Scharenberg, MD, the co-founder and CEO of Umoja Biopharma, which the MIF invested in at the start of 2025, said that having the backing of the MIF and MMRF is crucial in more ways than one.
“Because the MIF and MMRF are trusted by doctors and scientists, their support helps open doors,” he said. “When others see that the MIF believes in what we’re doing, it gives them confidence that our work is promising and based on solid science. That support helps us move faster and bring new treatments to patients sooner.”
