The Wellcome Trust has announced an injection of GBP110m to extend its Seeding Drug Discovery initiative for a further five years.
The decision follows an extensive internal review of the programme, whose successes include the completion of a phase one clinical trial of a drug to treat multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.
Since its launch in 2005, Seeding Drug Discovery (SDD) has committed more than GBP80m to fund the early stages of drug discovery, a point at which work is often considered too high-risk to attract funding from venture capitalists or other sources for commercial development.
The programme was set up to facilitate the development of drug-like small molecules that address unmet medical needs.
The aim is to progress projects to a stage where there is sufficient evidence to make the intellectual property and outcomes attractive to follow-on investors.
While it is still early days for many of the projects that have received funding from SDD, there have been a number of notable outcomes.
In September 2009, pharmaceutical company Achaogen announced the results of a phase one trial and preclinical data on its lead drug candidate ACHN-490 for the treatment of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.
The drug was well tolerated and plans are now underway to take the candidate into phase two clinical trials later in 2010.
Prof Steve Bloom from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London received an award to develop anti-obesity drugs based on the hormone pancreatic polypeptide, which is released naturally after a meal as part of the mechanism to tell the brain that the body feels full.
A number of other SDD projects have attracted additional funding, in the region of GBP48m, from partners in industry and the US National Institutes of Health.
In November 2009, a company trade sale was concluded between Prolysis and Biota Holdings, which included the acquisition of an SDD-funded programme to develop a new antibiotic to treat infections caused by MRSA.
Seeding Drug Discovery is open to researchers at public or private institutions, including commercial companies.
The next deadline for applications is 21 May 2010.
