Lilly launches new platform for worldwide drug discovery

Eli Lilly has launched a new open innovation platform to develop its product pipeline as well as identify molecules to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

The new Open Innovation Drug Discovery platform builds on Lilly’s Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative (PD²) that was launched in 2009 to identify molecules for future drug development.

Dr Jan Lundberg, Executive Vice President of Science and Technology and President of Lilly Research Laboratories, said: “We recognise 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."

The new platform consists of three components:

• TD², or target drug discovery, 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 medicines.
• A new initiative that screens molecules for their potential to fight against MDR-TB, a form of TB that resists against at least two first-line TB medicines.

Lilly has acknowledged that many reasons stifle the discovery process of new molecules, such as lack of resources, so has designed the new platform to minimise obstacles and benefit continued research.

The Open Innovation Drug Discovery platform utilises a secure website that enables scientists to submit molecules to be tested. A series of biological assay panels evaluate the molecule for its uniqueness and potential to be further optimised into a medicine candidate.

Dr Alan D. Palkowitz, Vice President of Discovery Chemistry Research and Technologies at Lilly, said that the new platform will “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.”