Abstract

The IMI European Lead Factory: New Opportunities for Drug Discovery

Phil Jones, Director, University of Dundee

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) European Lead Factory (www.europeanleadfactory.eu) is a major European project established with the aim of generating new lead structures for drug discovery projects in the public and private sectors. A Joint European Compound Library (JECL) has been established by combining selections of compounds from participating pharma companies. This collection of approximately 300,000 compounds will be supplemented during the course of the project with a further 200,000 compounds designed and synthesised specifically for the purpose based on contributed ideas from around Europe. Screening of the library and follow-up of resulting hits is carried out at the European Screening Centre based in Scotland and The Netherlands utilising state-of-the-art robotics for compound logistics and uHTS. Expert triaging and further characterisation of hits including medicinal chemistry is available to public programs (academic and SME based). The output is high quality hits that represent excellent starting points for drug discovery programs or tools for investigating and validating novel pharmacological approaches with the ultimate aim of creating benefit for patients.