University of Cambridge joins Lilly’s open innovation group
pharmafile | January 20, 2010 | News story | Research and Development | Cambridge University, OIDD, University of Cambridge, lilly
The University of Cambridge is to join Eli Lilly’s ‘Open Innovation Drug Discovery’ project.
Lilly first launched its online portal in 2011, and aims to identify promising new molecules held by third parties much faster.
The collaborative programme uses a secure website: https://openinnovation.lilly.com which helps universities and biotech companies test their medicines and develop potential new medicines, particularly in the areas of greatest need.
OIDD allows external researchers to evaluate and characterise their compounds, and to retain all intellectual property rights and data generated. In return, Lilly retains a “first-right-to-negotiate” access to the molecules or partner with the investigator to further advance promising discoveries.
Lilly says the goal is to not promote a random, high volume submission of compounds, but instead encourage the testing of compounds that represent novel structural diversity and molecular hypotheses that are “thoughtfully considered in light of the biology associated with each assay.”
Over 60 European institutions have so far joined the initiative, called the Open Innovation Drug Discovery Platform. The initiative aims to foster top talent in medical discovery, catering for the significant challenges researchers face in the current environment across Europe. The project is designed to tackle barriers to innovation, where cost pressures, cutbacks and lack of resource pose risks to ongoing research and development.
“I think of Open Innovation Drug Discovery as a platform consisting of multiple superhighways all pointed towards the final destination of discovering novel medicines that we believe have the potential to improve patients’ lives,” said Alan D Palkowitz, PhD, vice president of discovery chemistry research and technologies, Lilly. “These superhighways connect scientists from all over the world with Lilly, for the common goal of finding new treatments for diseases where patients are in need and looking for answers, such as cancer, diabetes and MDR-TB (multi-drug resistant tuberculosis).”
“Our mission at Lilly is to help people live longer, healthier lives,” said Jan Lundberg, PhD, executive vice president, science and technology, and president, Lilly Research Laboratories. “In doing so, we look for where there is a need and forge ahead within our own labs and through partnerships. In that spirit, we recognize that there are many untapped sources of ideas and molecules outside of Lilly that would otherwise go unnoticed without initiatives like this one that advance science.”
“This programme has the potential to provide important short and longer-term benefits to Cambridge researchers,” said Dr Emma Barker of Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation group, which will manage the agreement. “The access to Lilly’s sophisticated in vitro model systems, as well as the potential for future collaborations and licenses with the goal of discovering new therapeutics, makes these types of initiatives very important.”
The platform consists of three components:
• TD2, or target drug discovery, a component that screens submitted molecules for their potential to interact with known disease targets.
• PD2, (Phenotypic Drug Discovery) which screens submitted molecules in complex cellular assays with the goal of identifying potential new medicines acting by novel mechanisms or pathways.
• An additional component that screens molecules for their potential against MDR-TB that is resistant to at least two first-line TB medicines – through the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative.
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