Bringing lab discoveries to patients more quickly

Translating scientific findings from the laboratory into advances in human health is not a simple task. It can take decades before scientific discoveries lead to new tests, procedures or treatments that will benefit people’s health.

So in 2016 we launched a new funding scheme called Translational Awards, which aims to more quickly progress the development of new, innovative technologies so that they can be used to prevent or treat heart and circulatory diseases. 

New inventions, including drugs, medical devices and scanning techniques, can be protected by a patent to stop others from exploiting it without permission. This is a key step in the process of taking a discovery out of the lab and towards being used in real life. So far, research we’ve funded has generated more than 250 new patent applications.

Protecting the invention through a patent is just the beginning of the journey to patient benefit. The rest of the journey requires a multidisciplinary approach involving researchers and clinicians with different expertise, as well as a significant financial investment.

One of the ways to achieve this is by forming a university spin-out company that will attract further funding, including investment from the private sector, to drive the development of the discovery. Research we’ve funded has so far led to the creation of eight spin-out companies.

One of these is LUNAC Therapeutics, a drug discovery spin-out company from the University of Leeds, founded by Professor Helen Philippou, an expert in blood clotting. LUNAC is developing a new type of anti-clotting drug for the treatment and prevention of life-threatening blood clots causing heart attack or stroke, but without the bleeding risk that can come with current anti-clotting drugs. With fewer risks, this new treatment could allow more patients to be treated and could also allow people who are at higher risk of blood clots to have higher doses of the medication.

Another example is Critical Pressure, a drug development spin-out company founded by Professor James Leiper at the University of Glasgow, an expert in vascular biology who in 2020 was appointed as our Associate Medical Director (Translational Research). Critical Pressure is developing a drug that could treat septic shock – which is the life-threatening fall in blood pressure that can sometimes happen after an infection. Current treatments aimed at keeping their blood pressure stable have not been successful, and more than a third of patients don’t survive. The new drug being developed by Critical Pressure has the potential to provide a more effective and safe treatment for septic shock patients around the world. The company hopes to start the first clinical trial of the drug within two years. 

First published 16 June 2021