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Icahn Pledges $200 Million to Mount Sinai School of Medicine

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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn continues to use his wealth to advance Mount Sinai’s medical research capacities. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has pledged to donate the unprecedented sum of $200 million to Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Icahn’s gift will be the largest charitable donation ever made to the New York City teaching hospital, and one of the biggest donations ever to any type of medical school. The Upper East Side medical institution will be renamed the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in honor of the business mogul, who has captured public attention through his efforts to push takeovers and management upheavals. The majority of the money will go towards building general medical research capabilities, as well as specific research in the burgeoning field of genomics in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

“Carl’s support enables our scientists and clinicians to continue pursuing groundbreaking discoveries. We are honored to bear the Icahn School of Medicine name as we revolutionize healthcare for Mount Sinai patients and for patients around the world,” said Mount Sinai President and CEO Kenneth L. Davis, MD.

His magnanimous donation will place Icahn in a group of elite benefactors to nonprofit institutions. The group includes Sanford I. Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup Inc. whose name has been attached to Cornell University’s medical school in New York, and Kenneth G. Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot Inc. who has contributed large sums to New York University’s medical center. Icahn has previously bestowed $50 million on Mount Sinai, and he has guaranteed to contribute an additional $150 million throughout his lifetime.

“I have been very impressed with Mount Sinai’s extraordinary achievements to date in scientific discovery, medical education, translational medicine and patient care,” said Icahn, who is a trustee at the school. “I am certain that my contributions to Mount Sinai will lead to significant medical breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of disease that will dramatically improve and extend human life.” Mount Sinai School of Medicine will additionally rename a research center as the Icahn Genomics Institute.

Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, said Icahn’s remarkable generosity would fund various research projects at the medical school’s numerous disease-focused and core technology-based institutes.

“Carl Icahn’s generosity has tremendously strengthened Mount Sinai’s capacity for innovation by allowing us flexibility and opportunistic creativity, two of the greatest assets for any innovative organization,” said Dr. Charney. “We are extremely grateful to Carl not only for his philanthropic support but also for his trust and confidence in Mount Sinai and the major role our institution will continue to play in transforming global health care.”

Icahn’s previous contributions to Mount Sinai resulted in a state-of-the-art medical school research building on the Mount Sinai campus being named The Icahn Medical Institute. The famed investor’s most recent giving to Mount Sinai has supported the Campaign for Mount Sinai, a $1 billion capital campaign that launched in 2008 and that recently surpassed its target, well in advance of its scheduled December 2013 conclusion. “Carl Icahn has been a remarkable supporter of the capital campaign, and as a philanthropist, he is a game-changer for Mount Sinai,” said Peter W. May, Chairman of Mount Sinai’s Boards of Trustees. “His gift helped us to surpass our original $1 billion goal and has given us the momentum we need to reach our new goal of $1.3 billion.”

“No matter how you look at it, this is a historic time for Mount Sinai,” said Trustee James S. Tisch, who is chairman of the Campaign for Mount Sinai. “Carl’s gift caps off one of the most generous outpourings of institutional support I have ever seen. And with a year to go, every gift we receive ensures that more and more advances will be made in the research and clinical care that are the hallmarks of Mount Sinai.”

The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Established in 1968, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Icahn School of Medicine is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty members in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News & World Report.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2012, U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 14th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation’s top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Mount Sinai is one of just 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and by U.S. News & World Report, and whose hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.

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