In 1976, the Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD) at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York was founded by research pioneer and visionary Dr. Louis Lasagna to provide objective analyses and add an academic voice to policy debates on biopharmaceutical innovation.

In 1984, the CSDD moved with Dr. Louis Lasagna to Tufts University of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, where he served as the first Dean of the newly created School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. Renamed the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development  in 1988, the Center expended its focus to include a broad range of economic, political, scientific and legal issues affecting a diverse group of stakeholders across the global pharmaceutical landscape.