Print“By funding studies using these compounds, which otherwise would not be carried out, we will enable scientific breakthroughs that will improve the health of patients in the UK and worldwide, says MRC's Savill.”
Seven global pharmaceutical companies partnered with the UK Medical Research Council giving its academic researchers access to a virtual library of their shelved compounds. AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Research & Development, Lilly, Pfizer, Takeda and UCB will each offer up a number of their deprioritised molecules for use in new studies to improve the understanding of a range of diseases with a view to developing more effective treatments.
“This partnership between the Medical Research Council and seven pharmaceutical companies is a fantastic example of open innovation that benefits both industry and academia by opening up new interesting avenues for research that may not otherwise be available, or even redirecting towards other diseases,” says Stephen Whitehead, CEO of the trade group, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
All of the compounds to be shared have undergone some development, but have stalled at some point in early testing. Often this is because they are not effective enough against the disease in question. Although the pharmas have abandoned their development, MRC academic researchers will see if they can repurpose them against other diseases with shared biological pathways. Because they have undergone some preliminary development, such as safety testing, any new treatments arising from the research could more quickly reach patients.
However, even if the compounds cannot be repurposed, they hold value to academic researchers, who can use them to understand how a disease takes hold in the body and how it might be stopped or slowed down.
The partnership builds on a 2011 compound sharing initiative between the MRC and AstraZeneca that is already demonstrating success in this area, with the first human trials of a new treatment for chronic cough getting underway. The experimental therapeutic to be tested was originally designed to treat gastrointestinal reflux, but failed to help relieve the condition.
“Our ground-breaking compound collaboration with AstraZeneca attracted a huge amount interest from the academic community and saw the MRC award £7 million for research into Alzheimer’s, cancer and rare diseases,” says John Savill, CEO of the Medical Research Council. “We’re now building on this success by expanding into a rolling program with seven companies that will allow the academic community to access even more assets for use in innovative research projects. By funding studies using these compounds, which otherwise would not be carried out, we will enable scientific breakthroughs that will improve the health of patients in the UK and worldwide.”
A full list of available compounds will be published soon when UK scientists will be able to apply for MRC funding to use them in academic research projects. The partnership does not have a fixed budget or timeline. The MRC will make compounds available and fund projects on a continuous basis. The hope is that more companies and more compounds will be added to the partnership as its programs progress.
July 24, 2014
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-drugmakers_share_shelved_compounds_with_uk_researchers.html
