Five more drug majors join NIH initiative to speed therapeutic discovery

Five additional pharmaceutical companies have joined a US National Institutes of Health-led effort to help scientists research promising new treatments for patients. Funding and molecular compound information is available now for the initial phase of the recently unveiled Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules program.

This NIH-industry collaboration will match researchers with 58 compounds to test ideas for new therapeutic uses. Since the launch of the program last month, the total number of compounds the companies are making available has more than doubled.

Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutical Research & Development (a Johnson & Johnson company) and Sanofi have joined Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly which have agreed to make dozens of their compounds available for this initiative's pilot phase in this innovative approach to research (The Pharma Letter May 7).