Biofocus and the University of Bristol have announced a drug discovery collaboration aimed at developing treatments for chronic pain associated with diabetes (diabetic neuropathic pain).
Biofocus will provide hit-to-lead and lead optimisation services for a Wellcome Trust funded programme at the university.
The total contract value for Biofocus could exceed EUR3.3m (GBP2.8m) in research fees over two years.
The work is supported by a Seeding Drug Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust to a team of researchers led by David Wynick, professor of molecular medicine at the University of Bristol.
The project aims to develop an analgesic drug based on the protein galanin, a small protein that has been shown to reduce neuropathic pain in a number of models of diseases, including diabetes.
In earlier studies, several compounds from the Biofocus screening collection were shown to amplify the therapeutic effect of galanin in vitro.
In the two-year collaboration, Biofocus will provide medicinal chemistry, biology and ADME/PK for this research project, with the goal to optimise these molecules for the treatment of diabetic neuropathic pain.
