1 October 2015

The Université de Sherbrooke and the pharmaceutical lab GSK have signed a collaboration agreement to develop a novel drug against iron overload disorder.

This collaboration project will be led by research professor Dr. Richard Leduc, who is at the Institute of Pharmacology of Sherbrooke of the Université de Sherbrooke and the Centre de recherche du CHUS (CRCHUS – Research Centre), and GSK’s Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) team.

Pr Jean-Pierre Perreault, Vice-Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé of the Université de Sherbrooke, Pr Richard Leduc, Dr Amyn Sayani, GSK R&D Alliances director, and Pr Pierre Cossette, Dean of the FMSS of the UdeS

This is the first partnership to emerge from the Discovery Fast Track Challenge that GSK launched in 2013. At the time, the Sherbrooke scientist was the only Canadian award winner among the eight recipients.

Dr. Richard Leduc and the DPAc then worked together to test the hypothesis that the inhibitor of an enzyme that controls iron hemostasis could efficiently reduce iron overload.

In less than a year, the team’s work on the expression of this enzyme led to the discovery of early lead compounds and yielded several highly potent inhibitors.

The goal of the recently announced collaboration agreement is to optimize the identified compounds.

Source : Université de Sherbrooke
Photo Credit : Robert Dumont