Research consortium seeks government support

A consortium of eight research groups is pitching for Victorian Government support in a bid to become Australia's first fee-for-service pharmaceutical pipeline group.

The Australian Pharmaceutical Consortium brings together specialists across fields including x-ray crystallography, protein expression, structure based drug design, in vitro toxicological screening and medicinal chemistry to fill the gap between basic research and clinical trial programs.

Prof Mark Hogarth, who is CEO of the Victorian Institute of Biotechnology (VIB), a consortium member, said such collaborations were likely to become the norm in future to enable greater access to vital platform technologies in the drug development process.

"I think where the opportunities are is that, if you think about it, the human genome project has in a sense drawn to a close and the really interesting stuff is starting now," Hogarth explained.

"Genes make proteins which themselves are often the things that need to be regulated in disease, so the capacity to see structures of the proteins made by pathogens and design new antibiotics and other drugs is enormous.

"In this way the consortium is perfectly aligned to operate in this field."

The idea for the group was conceived about two years ago when the VIB approached Victorian government to apply for a Science, Technology and Innovation grant.

It was told a more collaborative approach would be a better way to go, and so it began the two-year process to build a group that now comprises the VIB, CRC for Bio-products, CSIRO division of health sciences and nutrition, Institute of Drug Technology, LaTrobe University, RMIT University and St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research.

The group submitted an individual expression of interest to the Federal Government's Biotechnology Centre of Excellence search, which it then withdrew to pool its bid with that of Bio21.

The bid failed to make the shortlist, and last week the group met again with the Victorian government to make a fresh request for support. Hogarth said a decision was expected during June.

According to the consortium's submission to the government, it is seeking $7.7 million in funds to buy equipment and build infrastructure. The group already has $22 million worth of financial backing "in cash and in kind".

"What we're asking for is platform technology for discovery and more applied aspects of research," Hogarth said.

"It will feed the synchrotron and be an output user as well."

As well as servicing the consortium participants, he said the collaboration aimed to become self-sustaining by charging for services such as in vitro toxicity testing and combinatorial chemistry, which were often sought overseas.

"One of the problems locally is that the equipment we have here is not first-generation equipment and there is limited mechanism to do rapid screening of crystals, in silico screening, synthesis of compounds, analysis and assaying," Hogarth said.

"The consortium is looking to put it all together.

"It is an integrated group of people with skills right across the pipeline and because of that you achieve efficiencies."

He said the consortium already had a series of projects in the pipeline involving anti-inflammatory and cardiology drugs, and antibiotics.