The Net2Drug project is very much an international endeavor, with a consortium that includes, in addition to BIOBASE, Progenika Biopharma S.L. of Spain, the University of Helsinki in Finland, Fraunhofer Institute für Toxikologie und Experimentelle Medizin in Germany, the University of Göttingen Medical School in Germany, Institute of Systems Biology Novosibirsk of Russia, Institute of Biomedical Chemistry of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences' Moscow Microbiology and Tumor Biology Center, Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and the CNR-ITB Institute of Biomedical Technologies in Italy.
The final toolbox of software and analysis tools is intended to be capable of handling any disease, but is particularly targeted at complex disease, multifactor diseases such as diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular disease and cancer. In fact, proof-of-concept of the toolbox will be provided by applying the technology to certain tumor types, particularly breast cancer—with which several members of the consortium are very familiar, Kel says.
BIOBASE has financial agreements with all of the project participants outlining how the commercial rewards will be distributed down the line. The company hasn't released any specifics of the individual deals, but Kel says the splits tend to be more or less equal between BIOBASE and its partners.
He adds that his company is interested in perhaps offering Net2Drug at no cost for academic institutions while charging fees to larger pharmas.
"Research interests are driving our commercial interests," Kel says, "and it is sort of our quality or philosophy that science should be first and commercial aspects should come afterward so that we can continue to do more innovative science."
