The goal of the Drug Discovery Center of Innovation (DDCOI) is to be a primary enabler for discovering and developing new candidate drugs for disease; serving as a key bridge between industry and academia to translate discoveries into effective medicines. The DDCOI will provide the opportunity for academicians and bio/pharmaceutical companies to utilize the DDCOI to outsource their early stage drug discovery and development work and to access a business intelligence portal to gain information on new druge discovery targets and technologies.
As a non-profit organization the DDCOI will serve two key functions:
- In operating a virtually-run drug discovery development operation the DDCOI will progress early drug discovery research up to the point a candidate drug is ready for testing in humans. This drug development capability can be utilized by:
- Pharmaceutical Company - Academic or Non-Profit Institution partnerships, funded by the pharmaceutical company, through DDCOI-managed Special Purpose Vehicles (independent for-profit entities) to advance drug discovery programs
- Academicians to translate their discoveries into new medicines funded by their grants
- Pharmaceutical or Biotechnology companies to advance drug discovery programs that they have put on hold which they cannot resource internally to the next value inflection point
- Disease foundations that apply grant money to help create new drug therapies
- The DDCOI will serve as a primary portal for pharmaceutical industry access to new discoveries and resources within North Carolina for the development of new medicines and for North Carolina academic and other non-profit institutions to access (ascertain) pharmaceutical industry drug discovery needs. This supercomputer-generated business intelligence database will be developed in partnership with North Carolina State University's Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS).
Contact:
For information regarding Drug Discovery COI contact Rick Williams at RWilliams@thehamner.org
For General Information, e-mail or call Mary Beth Thomas at (919) 541-9366.