Daiichi Sankyo - Exploring protease inhibitors as therapeutic agents

We are interested in diseases that can be treated effectively by inhibiting one or two proteases. The target protease(s) do not have to be expressed only extracellularly, but therapeutic efficacy must be expected by inhibiting the protease outside the cell. We are seeking research that 1) has identified key proteases, 2) needs inhibitors with high specificity to demonstrate the potential of the protease(s) as a therapeutic target, and 3) needs protease inhibitors with good pharmacokinetics that can be used in animal studies.

Solutions of interest include:

• Researchers focused on diseases that could be treated by inhibiting one or two key proteases.
• Cell-free and cell-based assays useful to understand pathophysiology.
• Animal model of the target disease(s) (e.g. transgenic animal or knock-out animal).

Our must-have requirements are:

• Reasonable expectation of dramatic improvement by single or dual protease inhibition.
• Unlikely to cause harmful effects when inhibited, based on knockout animal studies and available literature.
• Data from animal studies or cell experiments supporting the validity of targeting the protease(s).

Our nice-to-have's are:

• Animal model of the target disease is available.

What's out of scope:

• Diseases that require inhibition of three or more proteases for treatment
• Diseases effectively treated by existing drugs (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and stomach ulcer)
• Cancer
• Infectious diseases