Lilly opens a portal to new drug collaborations

Eli Lilly is opening up a web portal that might just open up new collaborative initiatives with lab researchers around the world.

Called the Lilly Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative, or PD2 (PD-squared), the portal will employ Lilly's disease-state assays to evaluate compounds synthesized at university and biotech labs around the globe. After biological testing is completed, Lilly provides the outside researchers a data report including a complete biological profile of the compound across four assay modules: Alzheimer's disease, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. And Lilly says the in vitro model systems will provide researchers with broader assessments of a compound's biological profile than what is generally available today in academic or government laboratories. 

In return for the data, Lilly gains first rights to exclusively negotiate a collaboration or licensing agreement with the researchers who submit their compounds.

"Each year, researchers throughout the world design and synthesize compounds in university and biotechnology laboratories that are never fully evaluated as potential drug candidates," said Alan D. Palkowitz, Ph.D., 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."

- read the Lilly release

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