Professor Chris Abell, courtesy Department of Chemistry
A Department of Chemistry spin-out which developed a ground-breaking method for drug discovery showcased its work last week in Parliament, as part of a national campaign celebrating the value of scientific research
Professor Chris Abell of the Department of Chemistry, along with Sir Tom Blundell (Biochemistry) and Harren Jhoti, co-founded Astex Technology Ltd in 1999 to develop an X-ray structure-guided “fragment-based” approach to drug discovery. This led to a significant change in how the pharmaceutical industry approached drug discovery, and fragment-based drug discovery is recognised as one of the most important developments in drug discovery in the last 20 years.
Astex has created eight potential drugs that have processed to clinical development. In 2011 Astex was sold to SuperGen Inc for £100m, creating Astex Pharmaceuticals with an estimated value in excess of £320m. In 2013, the company was acquired by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals for $886m.
The campaign, entitled ‘Inspirational science for a modern economy’, has been showing MPs the real power and difference government funding to science can have, both in terms of new discoveries and technologies transforming lives, and also in economic gains. It is being run by the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Physics, to demonstrate UK success stories of innovations and companies which have been formed from university science departments.