Dec 03, 2014 09:56 PM EST By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received a $100 million commitment to expand the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, officials announced.

Fred Eshelman, a 1972 graduate of the school, founder and former CEO of Pharmaceutical Product Development and founding chairman of Furiex Pharmaceuticals, donated the money to help accelerate interdisciplinary research and innovation. 

The commitment -- the largest from an individual in the University's history and the largest ever made to a pharmacy school in the United States -- will be used to create a center within the school named the Eshelman Institute for Innovation.

Through strategic collaborations inside and outside the University, the institute will help fuel innovation, create jobs and spur economic development in the state, while enabling the school to pursue new ways to enhance its position as a national and international leader. It will further advance the school's vision of being a 21st-century public research university with an ever-expanding focus on discovery and entrepreneurship.

"Collaborative public-private investments like this new institute will drive the future of innovation at Carolina, and we cannot thank Dr. Eshelman enough for his continued support of the school's leadership and of the leaders of tomorrow we are producing,"  UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt said in a statement. "Thanks to Dr. Eshelman's vision and generosity, we can pursue three critical components of the University's overarching mission: to continue to attract the very best faculty and students from around the world who have a passion to innovate; to fuel economic development arising from their discoveries in an exciting learning environment; and to educate the next generation of leaders to be innovative and competitive."

Eshelman previously donated $38 million to the school, including $3 million to support the school's drug-discovery center (2014); $2.5 million for pharmacy education, pharmacy practice, research and training (2012); $9 million for cancer research (2008); and $20 million for scholarships, fellowships, faculty development in teaching and research, partnership development with community pharmacists, and residency programs (2003). There are currently five Eshelman Distinguished Professors at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

"I am inspired by the work being done by students, faculty and staff in the School of Pharmacy. In the past 10 years, the school has generated more than 130 patents and created 15 spin-off companies," Eshelman said. "Their success demonstrates the power and the future of drug discovery in academia, and it's a future that I am eager and proud to support."

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