The Science for Life Laboratory Drug Discovery and Development (SciLifeLab DDD) platform reaches out to Swedish academia with an industry-standard infrastructure for academic drug discovery, supported by earmarked funds from the Swedish government. In this review, we describe the build-up and operation of the platform, and reflect on our first two years of operation, with the ambition to share learnings and best practice with academic drug discovery centers globally. We also discuss how the Swedish Teacher Exemption Law, an internationally unique aspect of the innovation system, has shaped the operation. Furthermore, we address how this investment in infrastructure and expertise can be utilized to facilitate international collaboration between academia and industry in the best interest of those ultimately benefiting the most from translational pharmaceutical research – the patients.