Two InnoCentive Solvers Win $40,000 for Devising New Methods to Cost-Effectively Manufacture Tuberculosis Drug Candidate

Two Solvers, From India and China, Propose Innovations That Are Expected to Save Time and Money When Manufacturing the Drug Candidate PA-824

InnoCentive, Inc., the global innovation marketplace, and The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), a not-for-profit, product development partnership dedicated to accelerating the discovery and development of new Tuberculosis (TB) drugs, today announced the conclusion of a Challenge posted last spring that sought methods for accelerating and simplifying the manufacturing process for a promising new TB drug candidate.

Tuberculosis remains a global health emergency -- killing someone every 20 seconds. The current treatment regimen for drug-sensitive TB consists of four medicines. This regimen works for active, drug-susceptible TB -- as long as patients complete the six-to-nine-month treatment. However, since many do not complete the burdensome regimen, incomplete or inconsistent treatment leads to drug resistance. As a leader in the quest for new TB drugs, the TB Alliance approached InnoCentive to help find methods of reducing the complexity and increasing the efficiency of the production of one of its most advanced drug candidates.

The two Solvers, one based in China and the other in India, respectively, were awarded $20,000 each for the more cost-effective and efficient methods they proposed for manufacturing the Phase II TB drug candidate PA-824. The Solvers' solutions were selected from 27 proposals received by the TB Alliance. This Challenge was supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, an InnoCentive partner, as part of its Initiative on Accelerating Innovation for Development.

News Highlights:

-- The winning Solvers proposed a methodological innovation that has the potential to shorten the synthetic route to produce PA-824 from five steps to three steps. The proposed solution may also eliminate a reactant known to be a skin and eye irritant.

-- The proposed innovations are expected to save time and money by reducing the complexity of the synthesizing process for PA-824.

-- Solver Dr. Kana M Sureshan has most recently been working as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in the department of Chemical Biology, Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany. Recently, he has joined as a Senior Scientist in the INSTITUTE OF LIFE SCIENCES, HYDERABAD (INDIA), an institution devoted to find solutions to improve human health through the application of cutting-edge research in integrated disciplines of life sciences. More information on Dr. Sureshan can be found at http://www.innocentive.com/servlets/account/UserInfo.po?f=awarded&userName=kms.

-- The TB Alliance has begun to implement the solution and is currently evaluating it in practice.

-- The TB Alliance works with public and private partners worldwide, and is leading the development of the most comprehensive portfolio of TB drug candidates in history.

-- For the TB Alliance, posting this Challenge on InnoCentive provided a cost-effective and efficient way to attempt to solve a complex problem.

-- For InnoCentive, it was a chance to connect the TB Alliance with its extensive Solver network, consisting of more than 165,000 scientists, engineers, inventors and other interested people throughout the world, to help develop improved treatments for TB.

-- For the Rockefeller Foundation, it was an opportunity to showcase the application of InnoCentive's open innovation platform to challenges that address the needs of the world's poorest people.

-- This is one of several Challenges posted on InnoCentive's site seeking new drug discovery methods for potentially fatal diseases, including a Challenge posted by FasterCures that is looking for incentives to induce companies to invest more in biomarkers research and a Challenge posted by Prize4Life that is seeking a biomarker for measuring disease progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease).

Quotes:

Dr. Kana M Sureshan, InnoCentive Solver, based in India

"It is rewarding and exciting to apply my expertise to create a method that will help accelerate the drug discovery process for tuberculosis, a disease that affects millions of people. I look forward to seeing this implemented and to continue my work and interest in the fields of medicinal chemistry and chemical biology to advance treatments and processes being used to fight various diseases."

Dr. Takushi Kaneko (Project Leader, Research at the TB Alliance) who oversaw the InnoCentive submissions

"The TB Alliance is a virtual R&D organization, accomplishing its mission through collaboration with partners worldwide. InnoCentive provided a unique platform for the TB Alliance to access scientific expertise from all over the world. We received many high-caliber proposals, and we're excited and optimistic about the potential of the solutions we ultimately chose. "

Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive, Inc.

"This is a disease that kills someone every 20 seconds. By turning to InnoCentive, the TB Alliance was able to utilize the brainpower of our Solver network to make previous methods of production more cost-effective and efficient. The Internet has made our world smaller, with open innovation we now have a greater opportunity to cure the incurable and fix the unfixable."

Tara Acharya, Associate Director, The Rockefeller Foundation

"We are delighted that the TB Alliance, a long-standing grantee of The Rockefeller Foundation, had the opportunity to use InnoCentive's unique open innovation platform to help accelerate the development of the promising candidate drug PA-824."

About the TB Alliance

The TB Alliance is a not-for-profit, product development partnership accelerating the discovery and development of new TB drugs that will shorten treatment, be effective against susceptible and resistant strains, be compatible with antiretroviral therapies for those HIV-TB patients currently on such therapies, and improve treatment of latent infection.

Working with public and private partners worldwide, the TB Alliance is leading the development of the most comprehensive portfolio of TB drug candidates in history, and is committed to ensuring that approved new regimens are affordable, adopted and available to those who need them.

The TB Alliance operates with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Irish Aid, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), and USAID. For more information on TB drug development and the TB Alliance, please visit www.tballiance.org.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation was established by John D. Rockefeller, Sr., in 1913, and works around the world to ensure that globalization's benefits and opportunities are spread more fully in more communities. Since 2005, The Rockefeller Foundation has launched major efforts to bolster local resilience to the global climate crisis, mobilize an agricultural revolution in Africa, rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, and shape smarter, more sustainable transportation policies in the United States. It also recently commenced a $70 million Campaign for American Workers to shape new policy proposals and financial products that promote and protect savings, access to health care, and secure retirements.

About InnoCentive

Founded in 2001, InnoCentive built the first global web community for open innovation, enabling scientists, engineers, professionals and entrepreneurs to collaborate to deliver breakthrough solutions for R&D-driven organizations. InnoCentive Seekers, who collectively spend billions of dollars on R&D, submit complex problems to the InnoCentive Marketplace where more than 160,000 engineers, scientists, inventors, business people, and research organizations in more than 175 countries are invited to solve them. Solvers who deliver the most innovative solutions receive financial awards ranging up to US$1,000,000. InnoCentive's Seekers include commercial, government and non-profit organizations such as Avery Dennison, Procter & Gamble, Pendulum, Eli Lilly and Company, Janssen, Solvay, SAP and The Rockefeller Foundation.

For more information on InnoCentive, go to: www.innocentive.com.

InnoCentive and InnoCentive Challenge are registered trademarks of InnoCentive, Inc. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.