Organizations will work to advance about four preclinical programs and start two biomarker studies.

Duke University and India-based Jubilant Organosys signed a letter of intent to develop a partnership that will expedite translation of discoveries by Duke scientists into clinical therapies. Definitive agreements are expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2010.

The parties plan on working together for five years with the objective of developing four or five therapeutic programs toward the clinical stage. They will also ally on biomarker research and validation studies.

Duke and Jubilant will jointly select and manage certain translational research projects that can leverage the the university’s expertise. Development capabilities including funding will come from Jubilant. Both parties intend to monetize successful drug candidates by licensing or partnering as appropriate to receive milestones and/or royalties.

Jubilant and Duke will also collaborate on two biomarker studies to be conducted in Kolkata, India. One project will focus on the development of a cohort to gain insights into the clinical and molecular characteristics of several chronic diseases highly prevalent in the Indian population. The investigators will work to better understand these diseases in the context of people moving from rural to urban settings.

The second study will validate, in an Indian population with heart disease and diabetes, metabolomic biomarker signatures found to be associated with insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease in Caucasian populations. Jubilant will fund the pilot phase of these studies in India.

Previous articleLife Technologies Offers Next-Gen Platform to University of Cambridge’s Sequencing Hub
Next articleBiota Acquires Assets from Prolysis and MaxThera for Roughly $11.5M