Birmingham’s triage seeks way round drug discovery’s ‘valley of death’

Dubbed the ‘valley of death’, the issue concerns the rate of failure for promising projects that fail in the phase between initial lab research and securing commercial investment. 

Writing in Drug Discovery Today, the university outlined how scientists led by professor Ruth Robert, chair of the university’s newly created Birmingham Drug Discovery Hub (BDDH), were able to attract more than £4 millions-worth of industry and grant backing from an initial £200,000 investment from the institution’s Dynamic Investment Fund (DIF).

Explained Roberts: “The BDDH model tackles, head-on, the biggest challenges that arise in academic drug discovery: lack of funding between basic research and investment-ready research; lack of expertise in universities to assess value and identify data gaps; and the issue of scale in university research, which often does not meet the critical mass of expertise needed for clinical translation.” 

University projects were subjected to a triage approach that allowed internal and external expert evaluation and management followed by targeted resources for approved schemes. This is followed by further evaluation of risk, mitigation and data gaps ahead of any clinical trials. 

CEO of University of Birmingham Enterprise, David Coleman, said: “Drug discovery is an important area of research for Birmingham, yet the ideas and innovations that arise can be difficult to take forward, not least because of the limited investment that is available in a sector which is highly capital intensive.  

“The BDDH directs available resource in the most targeted way to de-risk opportunities for commercial investors or licensees, and has created an impressive portfolio that includes novel targets, small molecules, and approaches such as immune-based targeting for inflammatory diseases.”  

Pic: Towfiqu Barbhuiya