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Cambridge MedChem Consulting

Seven pharma companies provide access to stalled development compounds

UK researchers will be granted access to a ‘virtual library’ of deprioritised pharmaceutical compounds through a new partnership between the Medical Research Council (MRC) and seven global drug companies, announced today by Business Secretary Vince Cable.

AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Research & Development LLC*, Lilly, Pfizer, Takeda and UCB will each offer up a number of their deprioritised molecules for use in new studies to improve our understanding of a range of diseases. A full list of available compounds will be published later this year, when UK scientists will be able to apply for MRC funding to use them in academic research projects.

This has the potential to a really exciting resource for scientists to explore the pathways involved in a variety of different diseases, and since the compounds have apparently undergone some development it may provide a boon to those involved in repurposing drugs. Much will of course depend on the compounds offered but perhaps other companies will follow suit.