Eli Lilly and Jackson State University have just signed a Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA), giving the university membership to Lilly’s Open Innovation Drug Discovery Program (OIDD). Eli Lilly was founded in 1876 and is the 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world. The company conducts clinical research in more than 55 countries, has research and development facilities located in eight countries, manufacturing plants in 13 countries, and the company’s products are marketed in 125 countries.
“This is an exciting opportunity for research at Jackson State University. It gives our researchers no-cost access to compound screenings, but more importantly, it provides an opportunity for licensing agreements with Eli Lilly,” says Dr. Felix A. Okojie, Vice-President for Research and Federal Relations at Jackson State University.
As a member of the Open Innovation Drug Discovery Program, Jackson State University will have no-cost access to Lilly’s internal screening of small molecules, natural products and natural product derivatives. The benefits of the program include: access to highly relevant screening assays and publication-quality biological data to test hypotheses, increased access to resources, the possibility to establish collaboration with Lilly, and the opportunity to advance laboratory science.
Submitted compounds should be at least 90 percent pure based on contemporary analytical characterization. Participation in the OIDD is limited to institutions that are research universities, institutes and biotech companies.
For more information about Jackson State University’s agreement with Eli Lilly, please contact
Dr. Felix A. Okojie at 979-2836 or faokojie@jsums.edu.