IDRI and Jubilant Chemsys Extend TB Research Partnership

The collaboration in chemistry support has been in existence since 2009 as part of a joint effort with the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative (LTI) and so far has generated hundreds of Novel Chemical Entities (NCEs) – some of which have now been identified for further exploration. Jubilant Chemsys, under the terms of agreement, so far had been offering philanthropic support and expertise in synthesis of NCEs to support the early research in TB.

Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Subir Basak, President, Jubilant Drug Discovery Services “Jubilant is excited to extend the partnership with Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) in identifying and discovering novel chemical entities in the area of tuberculosis. We are glad that the collaboration is leveraging our chemistry talent and our experience in anti-bacterial research. The research outcome will address the current unmet medical need in the field of TB therapy - a growing concern in under developed and developing economies including India.”

“We have been impressed with the commitment and engagement from Jubilant Chemsys in support of TB drug discovery over the past few years. We are excited to expand our efforts with them to access additional synthetic and medicinal chemistry capabilities. This will take us another step closer to our goal of developing much-needed new drugs to combat tuberculosis.” Tanya Parish, Ph.D., IDRI, Vice President of Drug Discovery.

IDRI is a founding member of both the LTI and the TB Drug Accelerator, a unique partnership funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that targets the discovery of new TB drugs by collaborating on early-stage research. The Foundation recently awarded IDRI $3.4 million in additional funding to Tanya Parish, Ph.D., IDRI Vice President of Drug Discovery, and supplements an earlier grant awarded in 2010, for a total of $7.8 million. The grant is focused on identifying new leads and drug targets for tuberculosis with the ultimate goal of producing new drugs to treat TB.

“Jubilant has been extremely successful in advancing several validated hit series for the Lilly Initiative, and we are very pleased to see this progress recognized through the ability to expand the Jubilant collaboration with IDRI.  We are very grateful to Jubilant for all they have done to get us to this point, and look forward to reaching our goals through this expanded partnership.”  Dr. Philip Hipskind, Ph.D., Lilly, Distinguished Research Fellow and Leader of the Lilly Initiative.

With this association, Jubilant will continue to provide chemistry and medicinal chemistry support to IDRI. The company is also evaluating further liaisoning with IDRI in key functional areas like computational chemistry and Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) Services.