LDC to Collaborate With Johnson & Johnson to Identify & Accelerate Innovative Drug Candidates
The Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC) and Johnson & Johnson Innovation Ltd., will collaborate to identify and accelerate innovative drug candidates for the treatment and prevention of diseases with high unmet medical needs.
Over a 2-year period, LDC and the team from the Johnson & Johnson’s London Innovation Centre will work together to identify on an ongoing basis translational research opportunities sourced from LDC’s top-tier academic network, including institutes from the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association, and various universities. Johnson & Johnson Innovation will review and evaluate the opportunities with the objective of establishing drug discovery collaborations with LDC in selected projects that are aligned with the company’s therapeutic focus areas.
“Through our academic network, we have access to a broad range of exciting molecular targets, pathobiological mechanisms, and new therapeutic approaches, which are the basis for project proposals with a high innovation potential for drug discovery,” said Dr Bert Klebl, CEO of the LDC. “Together with Johnson & Johnson Innovation, we will now be able to offer a solution for more of our academic partners to translate their innovative findings into benefit for patients. We very much look forward to leveraging our interests, expertise, and capabilities together with Johnson & Johnson Innovation to incubate additional collaborative projects at the LDC.”
For each project selected by Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the partners will negotiate a collaboration agreement for its joint development at the LDC up to the next mutually agreed milestone. The details regarding financial provisions and research activities will be agreed on a project-by-project basis to ensure a fair balance of investments and potential returns between the partners. Any revenue received from commercialization will be shared with the academic inventors and collaborating institutions.
The Lead Discovery Center (LDC) was established in 2008 by the technology transfer organization Max Planck Innovation, as a novel approach to capitalize on the potential of excellent basic research for the discovery of new therapies for diseases with high medical need. The LDC takes on promising early stage projects from academia and transforms them into innovative pharmaceutical leads that reach initial proof-of-concept in animals. In close collaboration with high-profile partners from academia and industry, the LDC is building a strong and growing portfolio of small molecule leads with exceptional medical and commercial potential. The LDC sustains a preferred partnership with the Max Planck Society and has formed alliances with AstraZeneca, Bayer, Merck Serono, Daiichi Sankyo, Qurient, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, as well as leading academic drug discovery centers around the globe. For more information, visit www.lead-discovery.de.
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