The Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation

Monday 29th March, 2004 Fast way to cures

The event next month will be one of the first major conferences hosted by the University of Bradford’s Institute for Pharmaceutical Innovation which opened last October.

The IPI has a specific remit to help research new methods for developing drugs by using the latest artificial intelligence and computer simulation technology.

The two-day international meeting will feature speakers from the United States, The Netherlands and Italy alongside leading scientists from the UK.

Around two thirds of the 80 or so attendees will represent companies from the pharmaceutical industry.

IPI senior scientist Dr Frank Leusen said the centre was beginning to have an impact on the industry and was attracting global attention for its pioneering work.

He said that as new techniques have speeded up the discovery of new drugs, their subsequent development is what slows the process of them appearing on the market.

“The feeling in the science community is that the development of these methods is at such a stage that more research needs to be done, but there is a strong feeling that they really could make an impact,” he said.

“They will help the industry to reduce costs and cut the time it takes to get a drug to market. We can’t expect that we will make a major impact within just a year.

“But I would be hugely disappointed if, five or ten years down the line, we haven’t made a significant impact on how firms in the industry do their research. And that applies at a regional, national and international level.

“This conference will help tremendously to put us on the map.”

The event, starting on April 26, in partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry Molecular Modelling Group, is sponsored by Yorkshire Forward, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Funding also comes from RSC’s Angela and Tony Fish Bequest Fund.