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The European Lead Factory (ELF) secured a total project budget of EUR 36.5 million under the second framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). 20 partners in 7 countries will push forward the transformation of potential drug targets to new medicines in the new project ESCulab (European Screening Centre: unique library for attractive biology) under the European Lead Factory brand.

The European Lead Factory has successfully accelerated the process of drug discovery. A recently published public summary of results so far clearly shows the benefits of collaborative drug discovery in the European arena.

Keapstone Therapeutics is preparing to make the next steps in clinical candidate selection and first-in-human studies. This investment brings the total seed investment to € 2,4 million. Last year Parkinson’s UK together with Sheffield University launched the virtual biotech Keapstone Therapeutics to further develop compounds that boost the internal cellular defence mechanisms against oxidative stress to combat neurogenerative diseases. These compounds were discovered by IMI’s European Lead Factory. 

The European Lead Factory is remarkably attractive for SMEs. The consortium consists of 30 partners, of which 10 are SMEs. They perform the screening and help to translate innovative design ideas into industry‐standard compound libraries. ELF is also interacting with a high number of SMEs who have enrolled via the target crowdsourcing route with in total 25 programmes (out of 88 programmes in the portfolio).