Seeding Drug Discovery

A new initiative aimed at bridging a funding gap for health researchers involved in early-stage drug discovery projects is being launched today by the Wellcome Trust.

The £12m pilot scheme will bring together inter-disciplinary teams and provide the finance required to recruit experts and services needed to accelerate their research towards new treatments.

The scheme will focus on supporting a small number of high-quality, well-resourced projects. If the initial call for proposals attracts novel and promising applications, the Wellcome Trust will develop the scheme into a five-year funding programme.

Awards will allow research teams, from academic groups and small biotech companies, not only to conduct work in their own laboratories, but also to contract research services where necessary and employ consultants with industry experience to provide management and technical advice. This should allow the projects to progress to a point where they can attract funding from venture capital firms, industry or Public Private Partnerships.

Dr Ted Bianco, Director of the Trust’s Technology Transfer Division, which is running the pilot programme, said: “ This is not about us moving into drug development. The aim is to drive forward the research to a point at which another organisation steps in to support further development through venture investing or in-licensing.

“Venture finance for this type of research seems to be drying-up. Hopefully this programme will contribute to a re-vitalisation of this area and so enhance the opportunities for future healthcare benefit.

“This is important to the Wellcome Trust because we wish to see the exciting insights arising from basic research translated to tangible improvements in health and wellbeing.”

A call for proposals is now being made and the first awards are expected next autumn (2006).

Ends.

Notes:

The Wellcome Trust is an independent research-funding charity established in 1936 under the will of tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome.The Trust’s mission is to promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and it currently spends more than £400m p.a.The Technology Transfer Division manages the charity's intellectual property portfolio and related matters and provides translation funding for early-stage healthcare technology development.Over 70 research and license agreements have been transacted and the division has an interest in around 20 life science Small, Medium Enterprises located in the UK or US.

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