Lilly invites researchers to submit novel compounds online
pharmafile | June 16, 2009 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development | digi, lilly
Lilly is launching a new web portal which it hopes will attract drug discovery researchers with promising new compounds.
The initiative, called the Lilly Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative, or PD2 (pronounced PD-squared), uses Lilly's disease-state assays and a secure web portal to evaluate compounds synthesised in university and biotech company labs.
Large pharmaceutical companies now devote a great deal of their time and money to identifying new molecules being developed outside their own laboratories, especially in academic centres and biotech companies.
The new initiative is aimed at cutting down the time taken to liaise with these potential partners and screen the drug compounds.
The company is focusing on finding novel drugs in four key areas: Alzheimer's disease, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis.
Lilly says the new secure web portal will also help uncover compounds whose potential would otherwise be missed.
"Each year, researchers throughout the world design and synthesise compounds in university and biotechnology laboratories that are never fully evaluated as potential drug candidates," said Alan Palkowitz, vice president of discovery chemistry research and technologies at Lilly.
"There's an untapped source of ideas and compounds in the greater scientific community that could ultimately impact patients' lives following further evaluation and development."
The first step is for researchers to make a confidential online submission of the structure of their compound to the automated PD2 interface.
This then undergoes an initial computational evaluation using a set of proprietary Lilly algorithms which evaluate its drug-like properties and structural novelty.
If the compound structure meets certain specified criteria, the researcher is then invited to submit a physical sample for biological testing. All testing by Lilly is free, and all intellectual property rights remain with the submitting researcher and/or institution at this stage.
Lilly stresses that it hopes the new portal will not result in 'random, high volume' submissions of compounds, but will instead help it find "novel structural diversity and hypotheses that are thoughtfully considered in light of the biology associated with each assay module".
After biological testing is completed, Lilly provides the external researchers with a data report with a complete biological profile of the compound across the four key therapy areas, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. Lilly says these data are derived from sophisticated and systematic in vitro model systems, and provide researchers with broader assessments of a compound's biological profile than is generally available in academic or government laboratories.
In return for providing this, Lilly has first rights to exclusively negotiate a collaboration or licensing agreement for drugs which show potential. If there is no agreement within a defined time period, the researcher is granted no-strings-attached ownership of the data report and can choose to use it in publication or grant proposals, or to further refine structural hypotheses, all of which may advance scientific discovery.
Peter Wipf, a distinguished professor of chemistry and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, was one academic who worked with Lilly on developing the new approach. He says for researchers not employed at a pharma company, the major potential benefits of PD2 include the ability to test compounds in well-validated assays, the comprehensive nature of the data reports and the opportunity to exchange ideas and hypotheses with Lilly experts on compounds of interest.
"I'm looking for drug discovery experts who can critically evaluate the data on my compounds and engage me in discussing their immediate potential for optimisation and perhaps their ultimate impact on specific areas of human health with unmet medical need," said Wipf.
William Chin, vice president of discovery research and clinical investigation at Lilly, said PD2 would give his company greater access to top global research talent, novel therapeutic hypotheses and rich chemical diversity to amplify and make the most of Lilly's expertise in these areas.
"We believe open collaboration with a network of scientists will create new venues to deepen our understanding of complex biological processes and eventually to discover novel therapeutics that benefit patients," he said. "Ultimately, our hope is that the patient will be the biggest winner of all."
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