UK Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced a new partnership between the Medical Research Council (MRC) and seven global pharmaceutical companies, which will give researchers access to a virtual library of deprioritised pharmaceutical compounds.

The seven global pharmaceutical companies that will offer the deprioritised pharmaceutical compounds are AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Research & Development, Lilly, Pfizer, Takeda and UCB.

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Academic researchers will use the compounds in new studies to improve understanding of a range of diseases and develop more effective treatments.

The compounds have already undergone some preliminary development such as safety testing, but have all stalled at some point in early testing.

"Academic researchers will use the compounds in new studies to improve understanding of a range of diseases and develop more effective treatments."

MRC expects that re-purposing such compounds could lead to the development of new medicines for many debilitating conditions. As the compounds undergone some degree of industry development, any new treatments arising from the research could reach patients much faster.

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MRC CEO John Savill said: "By funding studies using these compounds, which otherwise would not be carried out, we will enable scientific breakthroughs that will improve the health of patients in the UK and worldwide."

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Research proposals will be submitted to the MRC, which will independently judge the scientific quality of the applications and award funding accordingly.

The rights to intellectual property generated using the compounds will vary from project to project, but will be equitable and similar to those currently used in academically led research.

MRC said that projects funded through a previous compound sharing initiative between the council and AstraZeneca are already demonstrating success in this area, with the first human trials of a new treatment for chronic cough getting underway.