The University of Cincinnati has joined the Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly’s Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative.
In this pharmaceutical effort, also known as PD2, Lilly provides online, confidential access to its drug discovery assays to provide "a more convenient point of entry for global external researchers into Lilly's drug discovery and development process."
This free service is open to approved research universities, institutes and biotech companies with the goal of developing new medicines in the area of Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. Here’s how the partnership works: researchers submit compounds that have therapeutic potential to Lily’s phenotypic assay panel via a secure web portal. If the panel finds that the compound has potential to be used in a new drug, Lilly has first rights in developing and licensing it.
“This new relationship with Lilly’s PD2 program is mutually beneficial,” says Ruben Papoian, PhD, director of UC’s Drug Discovery Center. “They get to examine unique structures for therapeutic potential, and, in turn, we get a biological profile, which can be quite expensive to do independently. This initiative also gives us a transparent connection to a major pharmaceutical company in our region and could lead to real collaboration.”
This university/pharmaceutical partnership breaks new ground by using technology to make it easier for a larger number of academic researchers to connect with industry in drug development and discovery, according to UC.
“Many traditional collaboration models with pharmaceutical companies involve select investigator or institution relationships,” says Alan Palkowitz, PhD, vice president of discovery chemistry research and technologies at Lilly. “PD2 is unique in that it casts a very wide net in reaching out to universities, research institutes and small biotechs across the globe. The fact of the matter is that excellent science is neither tied to a research center's size or location. Lilly believes the approach it is taking with PD2 will maximize the probability of success in identifying new collaborative partnerships and innovative molecules.”
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Dama Kimmon, University of Cincinnati
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