New funding for medicines discovery centre

The national Drug Discovery Centre, to open in June at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, will help to bring medicines to patients via advanced robotic technology.
 
‘The robotics equipment will enable the centre’s world-class researchers to screen hundreds of thousands of chemicals and rapidly identify which ones can alter processes in the body implicated in a particular disease or condition,’ Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said.‘This discovery provides the starting point for the development of new medicines.
 
‘Our investment in this important Drug Discovery Centre will help researchers develop news drugs to treat both common and rare diseases and improve the quality of life of many Australians.’
 
Minister Hunt cited the drug venetoclax, an anti-cancer treatment based on a 1980s research discovery at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, as an example of successful local innovation.
 
‘The discovery and commercial success of venetoclax is a leading example of how Australia can benefit from great discoveries, and how as a nation we can continually excel in health and medical research on the international stage,’ he said.
 
The sale of royalty rights for venetoclax also contributed $32.1 million to the establishment of the Drug Discovery Centre.

Drug Discovery Centre drug research funding