Eli Lilly Partners With U.S. Organizations To Form New TB Drug Research Group
Eli Lilly has formed a public-private partnership with other U.S. health organizations aimed at developing drugs to treat tuberculosis, including drug-resistant strains of the disease, officials announced on Wednesday at Seattle's annual Pacific Health Summit, the Seattle Times reports. The partnership will be a not-for-profit drug research group based at the Infectious Disease Research Institute in Seattle. Lilly has pledged $3 million annually during the next five years to the partnership, which also includes the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the University of Washington's Department of Global Health, Afya World Medicines and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (Popescu, Seattle Times, 6/14). Jubilant Biosys and Merck also are involved in the partnership (Lilly release, 6/13).According to Gino Santini, a senior vice president at Lilly, additional funding will be secured through grants. According to partnership sponsors, an increased focus on TB is needed because no new drugs for the disease have been developed in 40 years. Gail Cassell, a Lilly vice president, said the partnership aims to develop the first new TB drugs by 2010. She added that any drugs developed by the partnership will be jointly owned (Seattle Times, 6/14).
Lilly will pay for the leasing of lab space and new research tools for the facility. It has given researchers access to its library of more than 500,000 chemical compounds that could be tested as possible TB treatments (Wakabayashi, Reuters, 6/13). NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the Foundation for NIH will partner with Lilly's Partnership for TB Early Phase Drug Discovery to help identify and further develop the most promising drug candidates (Lilly release, 6/13). TB was "thought to be a thing of the past," NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said, adding, "We've got to re-engage industry. That is what this partnership is all about" (Reuters, 6/13). This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
