University of Cincinnati joins Eli Lilly’s drug-development initiative

CINCINNATI, Ohio –The University of Cincinnati has partnered with Eli Lilly in a program meant to more efficiently determine the importance of research discoveries in areas including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis.

The partnership with Lilly’s Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative (PD ) turns university research over to Lilly scientists to determine their potential. Researchers and the school retain intellectual property rights. But Lilly will get the first chance to either collaborate on further research or enter into a licensing agreement.

The initiative, which launched almost a year ago, is a way for Lilly to build its drug development pipeline. Universities and other research institutions, meanwhile, say this academic-industry partnership makes it easier for an array of researchers to access pharmaceutical expertise.

“They get to examine unique structures for therapeutic potential, and, in turn, we get a biological profile, which can be quite expensive to do independently,” Ruben Papoian, director of university’s Drug Discovery Center, stated in a school press release.

[Photo courtesy of the University of Cincinnati]