partners and projects

SIDR has worked with over 40 industrial partners world-wide, from large multinational pharmaceutical companies, regional pharmaceutical companies, small biotechnology and specialist pharmaceutical companies, and agrochemical companies. Some of these are listed below.

SIDR's ability to bring together interdisciplinary teams from different academic departments and to tailor research projects specifically to the customer's needs provides cost effective research solutions.

Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation

YRING celebrates second multi-million pound investment award

For the second time in five years, a partnership between the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde and Scottish Biomedical has secured multi-million pound investment for research into new antipsychotic treatments for schizophrenia.

Due to its continued success, YRING, the Yoshitomi Research Institute of Neuroscience in Glasgow, has won a second major research contract from top Japanese pharmaceutical company, Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation (formerly Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd).The latest award was negotiated by the research commercialisation departments of the Universities, and by technology management specialists, Scottish Biomedical, who facilitated initial funding for YRING in 1997.

The YRING project, based at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, brings together leading biomedical researchers and clinical psychiatrists, with the aim of creating novel antipsychotic treatments for schizophrenia.

Celebrating the successful funding negotiations, Dr Stephen Hammond, Chief Executive of Scottish Biomedical said: 'We are delighted that Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation has pledged a further commitment to the YRING project. Their latest investment is based on the success of the last five years and will enable an increased team of 15 scientists to continue their work for a further five years. This reinforces the confidence that Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation has in the research programme, and emphasises the strength of Scotland globally as a base for biomedical research. The researchers, the facilities and the expertise here are among the best in the world.'

Setting the context for schizophrenia treatment and research, Dr Judith Pratt, the University of Strathclyde's co-director of YRING, said: 'Schizophrenia is an extremely debilitating mental illness, and it is one of the most expensive diseases to treat. It affects one per cent of the population throughout the world, amounting to 20 million people. Existing antipsychotic drugs do not cure the disease nor do they treat all the symptoms. Whilst the drugs treat the hallucinations and delusions associated with schizophrenia, they do not treat the cognitive aspects of the disease that affect the ability of people to think and plan daily activities. Designing new therapies that tackle this aspect of the disease is a major focus of our research.'

Dr Robert Hunter, Consultant Psychiatrist at Gartnavel Royal Hospital and honorary senior lecturer in Psychological Medicine at the University of Glasgow, is one of the clinical psychiatrists involved in the YRING project. He said: 'The benefits of existing drugs are often outweighed by the side effects, some of which can be extremely unpleasant. One of the most disturbing side effects of existing medication is the onset of symptoms that resemble those in Parkinson's disease, when patients develop tremors and lose their motor co-ordination. Eliminating this type of side effect is also a focus of our research.'

Professor Brian Morris, the University of Glasgow's co-director of YRING, continued: 'In the past five years, YRING has made remarkable progress in an area which had not advanced substantially in the previous 50 years. We are delighted that we will be able to build on our research and are confident that our work will lead to fundamentally different and highly effective treatments for schizophrenia. One of our most exciting developments is that we have identified schizophrenia-related genes using new gene chip approaches. These genes have not previously been linked toschizophrenia and may represent completely new therapeutic targets, with the chance of curing the disease rather than just treating the symptoms.'

Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd.

" ' Time flies like an arrow'. I was surprised to learn that it is now 10 years since I was first in SIDR's offices to discuss the possibility of a joint drug design and testing project. Congratulations to SIDR on its 10 years of successful development.

I was very happy with the way that our collaborations proceeded. SIDR's scientists designed and synthesised some unique compounds, and Nippon Shinyaku tested them in parallel to the assays in Glasgow. The outcome of the project was not successful, but the methodology of the exploratory drug discovery work with SIDR has been a good model for our company's drug discovery work. I wish SIDR good luck and even greater success in its next ten years."

Kiyoshi Kimura, PhD
Member of the Board
General Manager of Research Laboratories
Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd.
Kyoto, Japan

Tanabe Seiyaku Co., Ltd.

"The contract research project between SIDR and Tanabe first started in October 1992. The principal investigators of the project were excellent, and I felt that the terms of the contract were fair and reasonable. It was always exciting for me to read the quarterly reports from SIDR because the research was advancing steadily each time. We were fully satisfied with this collaboration.

We also obtained precious tropical plant extracts from SIDR under certain contract conditions. They were also attractive and useful for us. I am very happy to have the opportunity of collaboration with SIDR."

Dr Keisuke Kawashima, Director and General Manager
R&D Administration Division
Tanabe Seiyaki Co., Ltd.
Osaka, Japan

Sankyo Co., Ltd

" The healing relationship between humans ands plants stretches back almost as far as the dawn of humankind. Even today, drugs of plant origin continue to play an important role in the field of medicine. However, since the beginning of modern pharmacology, emphasis has shifted from plants to synthetic compounds as healing sources. To date, less than 1.5 percent of all species of flowering plant has been exhaustively studied to determine the chemical composition and the medicinal potential. And yet, nature cannot be outdone by the laboratory: plants are still one of the best sources of constituents of drugs or prototypes of drugs. Thanks to recent advances in high throughput screening techniques, it is now possible for scientists to examine a fairly large number of samples, including plant extracts, in a relatively short time period. Where once women exchanged medicinal plants across the backyard fence, now major pharmaceutical companies seeking plants, especially those from countries in the topical regions, make international cooperative agreements with individuals or organizations. The role of these individuals or organizations is the pre-screen plants that are potential candidates for investigation at the time of collection based on a targeted selection program in order to increase the 'hit rate'.

Sankyo has had a long and thriving relationship with one of these organizations, namely, the well- respected Strathclyde Institute for Drug Research: an institute capable of supplying a tremendous number of plant extracts of high quality. Here, materials are collected by excellent pharmacognosists having a wide and in-depth knowledge of plant taxonomy, natural product chemistry, and plant discovery programmes. The work at this institute is well documented and follow up studies on any active extracts are assured. Since 1992 Sankyo has had the pleasure and privilege of being supplied thousands of extracts by SIDR. Several interesting active compounds have been isolated from plant extracts provided to Sankyo for 'follow-up' studies. SIDR's knowledge and expertise in various areas of plants from around the world are a tremendous asset to Sankyo's efforts.

Toshiyuki Akiyama, PhD
Deputy Director, Research Institute
Sankyo Co., Ltd.
Tokyo, Japan