Abstract

Strategies for the Identification of Lead Molecules to Sustain a Discovery Organization

Steve Rees, Vice President, AstraZeneca

The identification of quality drug-like molecules for lead optimization or for use as chemical probes remains a challenge, particularly with the move within the field away from the traditional target families such as GPCRs and ion channels towards novel target families and phenotypic screening.   To address this pharma companies continue to enhance the diversity within their compound libraries, invest in advanced screening infrastructure and new screening paradigms, and invest in new therapeutic modalities.  Within AstraZeneca we have deployed a complementary suite of small molecule hit identification tactics, including high throughput screening, structure based drug discovery, DNA encoded-library technology and phenotypic screening to enable the delivery of quality lead molecules to the portfolio.  In this presentation I will describe the features of these methods and share examples of recent success.  Furthermore I will describe how AstraZeneca is leveraging value from its compound collection and screening infrastructure to enable a number of open innovation partnerships in which academics gain access to the AstraZeneca compound library or screening infrastructure to support academic drug discovery, with AstraZeneca being able to in-license the resulting drug discovery programs.