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NIH funds $12.7 million public-private research into new uses for approved compounds
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The NIH has funded a $12.7 million pilot project to test approved compounds for their effectiveness against previously unexplored diseases or conditions.
The initiative, Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules, will link academia and industry in a quest to find new treatments in eight disease areas:
- alcohol dependence
- Alzheimer’s disease
- calcific aortic valve stenosis
- Duchenne muscular dystrophy
- lymphangioleiomyomatosis
- nicotine dependence
- peripheral artery disease
- schizophrenia
“This unique collaboration between academia and industry holds the promise of trimming years from the long and expensive process of drug development,” NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, said.
According to the NIH announcement, the average time required to develop new therapies is 13 years, with a failure rate above 95%. The pilot phase of the program will include AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Research & Development, Pfizer and Sanofi.
A complete list of projects, award recipient principal investigators and industry partners was part of the NIH announcement.