European Lead Factory 2022 Annual Meeting: Year in review and plans for the future

PROJECT PROGRESS AND FUTURE PLANS

The ELF, a pan-European drug discovery project with the goal of delivering innovative starting points for new medicines, is entering the final year of its second Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)-funding round. The first phase of the project, which ran from 2013-2018, successfully put in place a collection of over 500,000 compounds and a state-of-the-art high throughput screening centre that gave a massive boost to drug discovery programmes across Europe. The aim of this second phase of the project, which officially comes to an end in November 2023, was to build on the achievements of the first five years and to establish the ELF as the long-term operational partner of choice for EU-scientists wanting to translate new disease-relevant biological targets and phenotypic assays.

The primary goal agreed upon for the second five-year term was to deliver high-quality chemical assets with a view to discovering starting points for new therapies suitable for investment. As we enter the final year, a key question and point of discussion during this year’s annual meeting was: are we on track to deliver on this mission?

Achievements to date

During the opening session of the 2022 Annual Meeting, Daniel Basting, ELF Project Lead at Bayer and Jon de Vlieger, ELF Coordinator and Strategy Director at Lygature noted that despite COVID-19, the team has been successful in making a significant impact over the past few years. Achievements have included the completion of a COVID-19 programme selected for screening in 2020, the identification of two new drug candidates for cancer treatment that have now progressed to phase 1 clinical trial testing, a publication on the project in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, the recruitment of five High Content Screening proposals, the completion of all screening slots for the ELF crowdsourced portfolio, and the launch of a new partnering initiative for charities and foundations.

Overall, the team has managed to secure a balanced portfolio in terms of patient benefit, scientific impact, risk diversity, and economic potential – more details of which are explained below. Over the upcoming year, the focus will be to deliver interesting drug discovery starting points for all our programmes and work towards a sustainable future for the ELF.

PORTFOLIO PROGRESS

Ton Rijnders, Chair of the ELF Strategic Portfolio Management team and Scientific Leader at Lygature, presented a thorough overview of the entire ELF portfolio. In total, 215 crowdsourced proposals were received during the recruiting period and 109 were accepted and are currently running or have already been finalized. A third of these came from small and medium-sized enterprises.

Key highlights

• 93 Qualified Hit Lists have been delivered with starting points for further medicinal chemistry with more still to come
• Activity was confirmed after resynthesis for 80% of the most promising compounds

PARTNERING INITIATIVE FOR CHARITIES & FOUNDATIONS

Earlier this year, the ELF launched its new partnering initiative for charities and foundations. With this move, the project now offers its services to charities and foundations around the world – making the ELF assets and infrastructure open and accessible to a much larger drug discovery community.

The ELF team is raising awareness of this new initiative through targeted outreach to charities around the world and through active promotion via the ELF channels. Charities and researchers that would like to explore this route, are welcome to get in touch. In total, the ELF can currently cater for 20 of these screening programmes.

Progress to date

A total of 51 charities are on the current list for targeted outreach. A selection has been contacted and discussions are ongoing. Interested researchers are being informed of the new ELF partnering approach, and, if applicable, are provided with guidance. So far, 15 investigators have been briefed and the first partnering contract is being formalised. Further outreach continues and will remain a priority for 2023.

Present at the Annual Meeting was James Duffy of ELF partner the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). James was complimentary of the ELF-MMV screening partnership, which has provided exciting opportunities for the advancement of anti-malarial drug discovery. He noted that the mechanism for the identification of new hit compounds through screening of the high-quality ELF library is of great appeal to charities.

For more information on the ELF-MMV partnership, read this interview with James, conducted in 2021. 

THE FUTURE OF THE ELF

A large part of the day was dedicated to discussing the future of the ELF. Earlier this year, a proposal of different scenarios for the continuation of the programme and its screening services beyond 2023 was developed and shared with the partners. The Consortium meeting provided the chance for partners to run through the options in detail and discuss the best path forwards. Several aspects still need to be ironed out. Addressing the open questions and working out the details will be essential activities for the upcoming year, and key to ensuring that the unique ELF infrastructure and collection remain intact and available to the research community.

In summary, after three years of virtual meetings, it was greatly beneficial for the ELF partners to come together again in person. A lot has been achieved over the past year. Taking the time to reflect on the results left partners feeling engaged and motivated to enter 2023 with renewed energy and to continue delivering on the portfolio and building a sustainable future for the ELF. The goal remains to cement the ELF as the long-term operational partner of choice for scientists looking to champion the discovery of new and essential medicines. We are excited for what lies ahead!