DiscoveryBioMed receives NIDDK grant for Cystic Fibrosis Corrector Ligand Drug Discovery program

DiscoveryBioMed, Inc. (DBM), a human cell-based drug discovery company, learned recently that its Cystic Fibrosis Corrector Ligand (CFCL) Drug Discovery program will be funded by the NIH. The two-year award will focus on validation and prioritization of several lead CFCL chemical classes, drugs that correct the most common cystic fibrosis (CF) disease-causing mutation.

“Both subcontracts, with valued colleagues in the academic research community, add tremendous value to our lead CFCL drugs through additional validation in the hands of other researchers. It is also incredibly important to give back to the two academic institutions that supported me for nearly 15 years before founding DiscoveryBioMed”

"DBM is thrilled to have received this grant from the NIDDK," explained Dr. Erik Schwiebert, CEO of DBM. "These grant dollars are essential to continue our most mature drug discovery program." DBM decided early in the process to screen for drugs that correct the most common CF mutation; screening over 75,000 small molecules on a disease-relevant human cell platform, a bronchial epithelial cell line derived from the lung of a CF patient. "This idea seems like common sense but has not been done to date for CF and this approach is lacking in the drug discovery industry in general. Our target is endogenous to the human CF lung cells so we know with certainty from the first experiment that our drugs permeate into the cells and find the drug target, a broken chloride channel, delF508-CFTR."

Dr. Schwiebert has studied CF for more than 20 years. "We took multiple angles of attack to discover novel drugs for CF which is founded in principles of the basic defects defined in diseased CF lung cells; fix the protein in its native environment and un-manipulated by any other scientific maneuvers. One is going to give the drug to CF patients, so why not discover it in a disease-relevant human cell-based platform? This approach has borne significant fruit, with multiple lead chemical classes viable for inhaled and oral routes of administration," stated Schwiebert.

DBM will be collaborating with Drs. Zsuzsanna Bebok, Karl Fu and Jim Collawn of the CF Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Dr. Bill Guggino of the Johns Hopkins CF Research Center. "Both subcontracts, with valued colleagues in the academic research community, add tremendous value to our lead CFCL drugs through additional validation in the hands of other researchers. It is also incredibly important to give back to the two academic institutions that supported me for nearly 15 years before founding DiscoveryBioMed," explained Dr. Schwiebert. DBM has also enlisted the services of Douglas Hay, PhD and Terence Porter, PhD, formerly of GlaxoSmithKline, to consult on drug discovery and development critical path and strategic positioning of future CF drug assets. John Dixon, PhD, a medicinal chemistry expert retired from AstraZeneca, is helping DBM select and modify the most viable drug classes for administration in vivo.

To support this and other CF drug discovery programs DBM has spun out a therapeutic development company which will garner separate investment to fund pre-clinical and early clinical trials of the best CFCL drugs emerging from this SBIR-driven program. "DBM will put its full scientific support behind this company and we already have prime candidates to lead DBM Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics," declared DBM's Director.