MRC allies with pharma industry to offer access to drugs for research

A new partnership between the Medical Research Council (MRC) and seven leading pharmaceutical companies will provide UK researchers with greater access to drug data for research.

AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Lilly, Pfizer, Takeda and UCB have all agreed to offer up a number of their deprioritised molecules via a virtual library of compounds for use in new medical studies.

All of these compounds have had their development abandoned due to factors such as efficacy failings. However, they may still be useful against other diseases with shared biological pathways, making them highly valuable to academic researchers.

Since these molecules have already undergone some preliminary development and safety testing, any new therapies that arise from the research could be brought to market much more quickly.

Professor Sir John Savill, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said: "By funding studies using these compounds, which otherwise would not be carried out, we will enable scientific breakthroughs that will improve the health of patients in the UK and worldwide."

In 2012/13, the MRC spent 766.9 million pounds on research into various projects, with the ultimate aim of tackling some of the country's most pressing health issues.