AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Merck Serono, and Pfizer have pledged support of more than £14 million ($23 million) to a translational drug development project being run by the UK’s Medical Research Council and the University of Dundee. The university’s Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT) has been working to develop treatments for several diseases including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Parkinson’s Disease.
more...
The University of Dundee and the Medical Research Council (MRC) are pleased to announce new funding of over £14million from a consortium of six pharmaceutical companies for continuing research on the development of new drug treatments for major global diseases.
The consortium, called the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT), includes six of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies -- AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Merck-Serono (the Pharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA) and Pfizer -- and will provide core support of £14.4 million to the DSTT over the four-year period from July 2012 - 2016.
Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, said, "Collaboration between the life sciences industry and academia is vital for the development of new treatments and leverages significant private funding into our research base. This investment will continue the excellent work taking place at the University of Dundee on major global diseases, helping to bring benefits for patients and the economy."
Thought to be the world's largest collaboration between the academic community and the pharmaceutical industry, the DSTT includes 15 research teams based at the University of Dundee. Thirteen of the teams are based within the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit and Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling (SCILLS) at the College of Life Sciences. Together, consortium scientists will continue early-stage research in multiple areas, including cancer, arthritis, lupus, hypertension and Parkinson's disease.
Professor Sir Philip Cohen, co-founder of the DSTT, said, "Collaborations between academic laboratories and the pharmaceutical industry typically last a few years. Therefore to maintain and expand support for the DSTT from 1998 until at least 2016 is unprecedented and remarkable. It shows how valuable the collaboration has been for the pharmaceutical industry."
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/2012/may12/drugdiscovery.htm
