Although there are hundreds of academic drug discovery centers open around the world, there are comparatively few academic drug development centers that contain the key core competencies needed to progress a lead compound into clinical trials. This is largely a consequence of operating in the “Valley of Death” (i.e., insufficient infrastructure, expertise, and funding). We have created an academic drug development center called DRIVE (Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory) that was designed to overcome many of the intrinsic and occasionally unintended barriers associated with academic drug development. Herein, we report a proof of concept that the DRIVE model provides a robust framework for pursuing university-based drug development, especially when the drugs in question target rare and neglected diseases.