Medicinal Chemistry Center develops research in collaboration with 2 laboratories and wants to close an agreement with 3 more based in the country by the end of 2019
The pharmaceutical laboratories Aché and Eurofarma have, in recent years, signed research partnerships with the Medicinal Chemistry Center (CQMED), based at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), with the aim of developing potent and selective molecules for specific target proteins that could result in new medicines.
Collaborative research follows the open innovation model. The center was created with support from FAPESP through the Research Support Program in Partnership for Technological Innovation (PIES), in cooperation with the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) – an international consortium of universities, governments and pharmaceutical industries to accelerate the development of new medicines.
The model establishes that all knowledge generated up to the molecule validation phase is in the public domain and can be used to advance research in the pre-clinical and clinical phase by academic groups or pharmaceutical industries anywhere in the world. After the end of this pre-competitive phase, pharmaceutical companies that manage to further improve the initial molecules and prove the therapeutic efficacy of derived compounds in clinical studies will be able to patent them.
Not only recent in Brazil, this type of public-private partnership aimed at developing new drugs through open access research has attracted the interest of pharmaceutical industries in the country due to the series of advantages for their research, development and innovation strategies. . In addition to Aché and Eurofarma, CQMED intends to close research agreements with three other pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies by the end of 2019.
“Partnerships with pharmaceutical industries are essential for the identification and development of molecules that could result in new medicines,” he said. Paulo Arruda, professor at Unicamp and coordinator of CQMED, at FAPESP Agency.
The development of a new drug today can take a decade and cost the equivalent of US$1 billion – an investment that is a deterrent for many national pharmaceutical companies. And out of every 10 molecules developed, only one reaches the end of the research process with robust scientific evidence to obtain a new drug, indicate data from the Pharmaceutical Research Industry Association (Interfarma).
Cooperative and open access research with a center, such as CQMED, makes it possible to share the risk, save resources and reduce redundancy in research, by avoiding unnecessary tests with molecules that have not been previously approved.
Furthermore, it makes it possible to attack therapeutic targets that have been little or never studied, say representatives of the pharmaceutical industries.
“Normally, we work with therapeutic targets that already have a certain validation on the market. The CQMED consortium is important because it brings completely radical therapeutic targets, which no one has worked on until now,” said Cristiano Ruch Werneck Guimarães, director of Aché’s radical innovation center.
The company was the first to join CQMED, in 2016, after opening a molecular design and synthesis laboratory. The laboratory allowed the pharmaceutical company to contribute on equal terms to research carried out in partnership with the center, said Guimarães.
While CQMED researchers dedicate themselves to basic biology studies – which are the focus of the center –, the company's researchers can focus on medicinal chemistry, that is, the development of molecules. Communication between the company and university is constant and the molecules made by Aché are evaluated at CQMED.
“The partnership with CQMED allows us to greatly accelerate our innovation and gives us the conditions to be a relevant competitor in global pharmaceutical research by reaching the market first with a drug for a target that no one has ever studied”, stated Guimarães.
Aché has two research projects with CQMED, aimed at developing inhibitors of enzymes linked to cell proliferation (kinases) related to the development of cancer. Collaboration on projects was formalized in 2017 when CQMED became an Innovation Unit of the Brazilian Industrial Research and Innovation Company (Embrapii). Through the agreement, Embrapii began to provide financial compensation for each new project between CQMED and the companies. In the same year, Eurofarma also began its collaboration with the Unicamp center (Read more at: http://agencia.fapesp.br/27151).
With an initial investment of R$8,4 million for six years, the agreement aims to research new molecules for the development of medicines aimed at treating cancer by Aché, and anti-infectives, such as antibiotics and antiparasitics, by Eurofarma.
“The partnership with CQMED makes it possible to carry out projects to develop molecules for therapeutic targets that have not yet been explored internationally. We wouldn’t be able to carry out these studies alone”, said Gabriela Barreiro, pre-clinical development manager at Eurofarma.
Another benefit of the agreement, in Barreiro's assessment, is to enable the training of researchers in drug development in the country. Through the projects, the company maintains postdoctoral students in two organic chemistry laboratories at Unicamp.
“Drug development, from conception to reaching the clinical phase, in humans, is still something very new and incipient in Brazil. There are very few professionals who know how to do this in the country. In this sense, projects in partnership with CQMED make it possible to train these professionals”, said Barreiro.
