AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, J&J, Pfizer, Sanofi, Baylor College of Medicine, Indiana University, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Mayo Clinic, University of Pittsburgh, U

NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) awarded $12.7 million to nine academic research groups to repurpose compounds from pharma partners under a pilot initiative. The groups will evaluate the selected compounds, all of which have cleared safety and toxicity hurdles through at least Phase I testing, for effectiveness against eight diseases or conditions for which the compounds have previously been unexplored. Last year, a group of pharmas that includes AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Sanofi partnered with NCATS to provide academic researchers access to 58 compounds for repurposing.

The projects under the pilot initiative include Lilly's LY500307, an estrogen receptor-b agonist for schizophrenia; AstraZeneca's saracatinib (AZD0530), a dual inhibitor of c- src and BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase for Alzheimer's disease (AD); ZD4054, an endothelin A receptor antagonist for peripheral artery disease (PAD); and Pfizer's PF-03463275, a glycine transporter type 1 ( GlyT1; SLC6A9) inhibitor for schizophrenia. ...