GHIT Request for Proposals: Fund Hit-to-Lead Platform (HTLP)
The Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund is calling for Proposals to the Fund Hit-to-Lead Platform (HTLP). The HTLP is designed to leverage medicinal chemistry expertise in Japan and facilitate access to Japanese companies or academic organizations’ relevant and diverse compounds for drugs development to address malaria, tuberculosis, Chagas disease, and Visceral leishmaniasis.
Project Descriptions and Definitions:
- There is an urgent need to bring forward new drugs for diseases that disproportionately affect the poor. Many compounds are in early- and later-stage development for drugs against malaria, tuberculosis, chagas, and visceral leishmaniasis. However, there is still a need to expand the drug pipeline for these diseases by bringing forward compounds that have not been previously screened or that are known to target mechanisms of action in a novel manner. The HTLP projects will focus on the aspect of the drug discovery and development process that progresses hits, identified through compound library screening, into lead compounds that can then be optimized into drug candidates. This platform will provide a bridge from early drug discovery to GHIT’s product development platform that begins with the lead-optimization step.
Proposal Eligibility:
Cellular potency consistent with potential to deliver lead series (typically Plasmodium spp. IC50 <1µM, T. cruzi intracellular IC50 <10 µM, L. donovani intracellular IC50 <10µM, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis MIC <10µM)
- Compounds originated/derived from Japan
- Novel hit structures confirmed
- Primary results validated on hit compounds (>90% pure)
- Acceptable in vitro concentration-response curves
- Preliminary SAR with existing analogues
- Progressable chemotypes
- >10-fold selectivity for cytotoxicity using a mammalian cell line (e.g. HepG2)
- Adequate selectivity in counter assay(s)
- No blocking intellectual property (IP)
- No major synthesis or formulation issues anticipated
The key requirement of the Hit-to-Lead Platform is to convert drug hits originated from Japanese compound libraries into lead series through a comprehensive assessment of chemical integrity, synthetic accessibility, scalability and novelty, functional behavior, and structure-activity relationships (SAR), as well as bio-physiochemical and absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) properties.
Interested applicants can find detailed information on the RFP and the Intent to Apply (ITA) form below. An ITA should be submitted first and upon an eligibility assessment, approved applicants will be notified and request to submit a full proposal to the GHIT Fund.
Read more here.
Important dates:
- Intent to apply deadline – August 28, 2023
- Full proposal deadline – October 2, 2023.
