UK Drug Discovery Consortium symposium

London, UK, 23rd February 2009 – ‘Imperial College London‘, ‘Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research’, ‘ Drug Discovery Unit, University of Dundee’, ‘Cancer Research Technology (CRT)’, ‘MRC Technology’ and the ‘Wellcome Trust’, members of the new UK Drug Discovery Consortium, have announced their first symposium “21st Century Drug Discovery – a new approach” on March 11th, 2009 in central London.

By the time you read this press release 20 people will have been diagnosed with cancer worldwide and 10 people will have been infected with HIV. A further 2 children will have died from malaria and an estimated 7 people will have died from Tuberculosis. It is clear that new drugs are urgently needed for a wide range of diseases. Many potential groundbreaking treatments from academic laboratories never see the light of day owing to lack of resources and access to the necessary tools to turn a great idea into a clinical reality. The UK Drug Discovery Consortium has been set up to galvanise the drug discovery efforts in academia and help develop UK science towards treating patients who so desperately need new hope. The symposium on 11th March is all about raising awareness of the UKDDC such that academic scientists know where to come for help in developing their products and Pharmaceutical companies realise the wealth of great new drug ideas arising from UK science that they might wish to champion into the clinic.

Further information can be found at www.ukddc.org