Lilly launches ‘open innovation’ drug discovery
pharmafile | September 28, 2011 | News story | Research and Development | OIDD, TB, lilly
Lilly has launched a new open innovation platform designed to help build its pipeline and to identify new treatments for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
The new platform, titled Open Innovation Drug Discovery, is supported by an innovative new website available at openinnovation.Lilly.com. It builds on the success of Lilly’s Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative (PD2), which was launched in 2009 to facilitate research on molecules around the world that have the potential to ultimately be developed into medicines.
The new platform consists of three components:
• TD2, or target drug discovery, a new component that screens submitted molecules for their potential to interact with known disease targets.
• PD2, which continues to screen submitted molecules in complex cellular assays with the goal of identifying potential new medicines acting by novel mechanisms or pathways.
• An additional new 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.
Lilly has long been involved in global efforts to stop the spread of TB and multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), which disproportionately affects under-served populations.
“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 Palkowitz, VP of discovery chemistry research and technologies at 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.”
Many scientists have molecules they would like to explore as potential medicines, but for a range of reasons, including the lack of resources or barriers to engaging in the drug discovery and development process, they are not able to advance their work. The Open Innovation Drug Discovery platform is designed to minimise these obstacles and benefit continued research that supplements the innovation of Lilly’s scientists.
Lilly’s TB Drug Discovery Initiative
In addition to focusing on research areas in which Lilly has an internal strategic focus and expertise – cancer, endocrine, cardiovascular and neuroscience – the open innovation platform will serve as a bridge between external scientists and the not-for-profit Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative, whose mission is to accelerate early-stage drug discovery and help identify the TB medicines of the future. Leading members of the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative include the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Open Innovation Drug Discovery platform utilises a secure website that offers Lilly’s proprietary computational and informatics tools to aid scientists in the design and selection of molecules. Once a scientist submits a molecule to the website and it meets certain specified requirements, Lilly tests it – free of charge – in a series of biological assay panels that evaluate it for its uniqueness and potential to be further optimised into a drug candidate. Comprehensive data reports are then provided to the submitting scientist.
In the case of the cancer, endocrine, cardiovascular and neuroscience screenings, in return for providing the data Lilly receives first rights to negotiate a collaboration or licensing agreement with the submitter. If no such agreement is reached, the external scientist retains “no-strings-attached” ownership of the data and can choose to use it in publications, grant proposals or to further refine his or her hypotheses about the molecule’s potential as a medicine. In the case of the MDR-TB screening, promising data could result in a collaboration between the submitting organisation and the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative.
Jan Lundberg, head of Lilly’s R&D operations, said the project recognised the “many untapped sources of ideas and molecules” outside the company.
The initiative is part of Lilly’s wider goal of raising R&D productivity with faster development times and lower costs. Another Lilly R&D project entitled Chorus focuses on leaner development processes, and aims to reach decisions about 12 months earlier and at about half the cost of the current industry model.
Andrew McConaghie
Related Content
NICE RECOMMENDS LILLY’S TIRZEPATIDE (MOUNJARO ®▼) FOR MANAGING OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN FINAL DRAFT GUIDANCE
BASINGSTOKE, 5th December 2024 – Eli Lilly and Company announced today that the National Institute …
Lilly’s COVID-19 drug has EUA revoked in favour of combination therapy
The FDA have revoked Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab drug for the …
BATM develops molecular diagnostics test for tuberculosis
BATM have announced that it has developed a new method for the rapid and comprehensive …
