SGC Announces Janssen has joined Public-Private Drug Discovery Partnership

Toronto, ON (October 25, 2013) – The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) announced today that Janssen Pharmaceuticals NV has joined its group to partner in the investigation of epigenetics-based drug research, a new and burgeoning field in the development of future medicines.

One of the largest ever early-stage research partnerships between the pharmaceutical industry and the public sector, the SGC receives its core funding through Genome Canada, the Ontario government and the Wellcome Trust. The SGC is based at the Universities of Oxford and Toronto, with funding and research activities split between the two sites. The SGC’s mandate is to identify and map the three-dimensional structure of human proteins and use this information to generate research tools to enable drug discovery. Its work is important in helping scientists better understand the role of human proteins in disease. All SGC research output of target protein and probe compounds is placed into the public domain, without restriction on use.

In the field of epigenetics, the SGC and its research network of 200 scientists are focused on facilitating the discovery, validation and development of new treatments in this cutting-edge research area.

“We at SGC applaud the Government of Canada for its recent successful free-trade negotiations with Europe, Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and the components within that agreement that reinforce the importance of life sciences research here in Canada and set the stage for more investment into research partnerships between the public and private sectors,” said Aled Edwards, Chief Executive, SGC.

About the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC)

Located at the Universities of Toronto and Oxford, the not-for-profit organization supports the discovery of new medicines by carrying out open-access research in structural and chemical biology. More than 200 researchers in academia and in six pharmaceutical companies collaborate within SGC to accomplish these goals. The SGC is funded by Genome Canada, the Ontario’s Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Wellcome Trust, AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly Canada, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda. More information is available at www.thesgc.org.

Structural Genomics Consortium Contact:
Arij Al Chawaf, PhD
416-854-2745
arij.alchawaf@thesgc.org