News

ITI Life Sciences invests £9.3M in drug discovery

Hi-Tech Scotland reporter | Monday November 10, 2008



ITI Life Sciences has launched a significant programme in a bid to develop the next generation of drug discovery targets, which could see a major breakthrough in the fight against cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases.
The UPS (Ubiquitin Proteasome System), which regulates multiple cellular control mechanisms and has been implicated in key diseases, was identified by ITI Life Sciences as a rich source of future drug targets which have been, until now, relatively unexplored. An investment of £9.3 million over a period of up to four years will see ITI Life Sciences working to develop the technologies and provide proof of concept for drug discovery against this class of molecular targets. Scientists from The University of Edinburgh and Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto are already engaged on the programme with additional parties being brought on board as the programme meets key deliverables throughout its cycle.
To ensure the programme retains its technical and commercial focus, ITI Life Sciences has created an international Programme Advisory Group (PAG) to provide valuable input and help guide the programme towards its milestones. The UPS PAG members include: Professor Karen Vousden, Director of The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow; Dr Frank Mercurio, Chief Scientific Officer of BioTheryx, San Diego and former-Director of Cell Signalling and Target Discovery, Celgene Corporation, New Jersey and Professor Manfred Auer, a Professor at the University of Edinburgh and former-Director of Assay Development and Screening at the Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research, Vienna.
The UPS Programme is modeled on the highly successful Kinase drug discovery research market, currently one of the highest priority areas for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Drug targets within the UPS share many of the characteristics that Kinases demonstrated at a similar stage in their development before going on to become an international success story for Scotland. ITI Life Sciences estimates the market potential for drug discovery and technology development within the UPS technology could eventually mirror that of the current Kinase market of around $16 billion annually. ITI Life Sciences will seek either a start up company or existing company in Scotland to take the technology to market.
Eleanor Mitchell, Managing Director of ITI Life Sciences, said: “Scotland has, throughout the history of modern medicine, been at the forefront of new developments, and we want to carry on that tradition. Our analysis of the scientific and commercial landscape has identified that the UPS provides a rich source of emerging drug targets, yet it remains a relatively unexploited and largely uncharted area for drug discovery.
“Due to the collaborative nature of ITI programmes, we have the capability of bringing together multiple groups with diverse scientific backgrounds, which will be best suited to exploit this area optimally and we hope we can make this programme every bit as successful as Kinase drug discovery.”
Commenting on the launch Dr Frank Mercurio said: “This is a groundbreaking research programme and I am very happy to be involved. The UPS presents such great opportunity for future drug discovery targets and I’m looking forward to working closely with ITI and the other PAG members on this international programme. The market opportunities for this technology are huge, not to mention the tremendous potential benefits to the health of people across the world.”
Commenting on the potential of Ubiquitin technology Professor Sir Philip Cohen, member of the ITI Life Sciences Scientific Advisory Group and Founding Director of Scottish Institute for ceLL Signalling (SCILLS), said: “The UPS drug discovery market is an exciting area and with it still being in its infancy it provides an excellent opportunity to exploit this area of drug discovery. I am very confident that the market has the potential to become even bigger than Kinases. While there is a lot of work to be done I am thrilled to be working alongside the skills and expertise of ITI Life Sciences to help make sure the UPS Programme is successful and brings with it many commercial benefits for Scotland. With the ITI Life Sciences programme and the new SCILLS unit in Dundee, Scotland is leading the way in this new emerging field and will benefit hugely in the long run from our early stage investment.”

www.itilifesciences.com
www.scills.ac.uk

Digg this article

Technorati tags: