48Hour Discovery and Merck join hands to accelerate drug development

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 15 2021

48Hour Discovery (48HD) and CQDM are proud to announced that the company has been awarded $800,000 for peptide drug discovery using its patented drug discovery platform. The two-year project is funded through the CQDM Quantum Leap program, which supports exploration of innovative technologies, tools, and platforms that accelerate or facilitate drug discovery and development. Merck is supporting the study as a member of CQDM. 48HD will collaborate with the University of Alberta on the project. GlycoNet, a Network of Centres of Excellence based at the University of Alberta is also providing funding support.

"This project offers 48Hour Discovery and its University of Alberta collaborators the opportunity to demonstrate the value of this game changing, peptide drug discovery platform." said John Dwyer, Vice President of Research for 48Hour Discovery.

For the CQDM project, researchers at 48Hour Discovery will screen targets selected by Merck. Specially constructed libraries containing billions of peptides will be screened using phage display and proprietary bioinformatic algorithms to quickly identify hit compounds.

"This valuable collaboration increases our ability to explore and deliver the therapeutic potential of our technology." said Ratmir Derda, CEO of 48Hour Discovery.

CQDM is pleased to have facilitated the establishment of collaborations for 48H Discovery by creating beneficial links between this emerging company and the pharmaceutical giant Merck. These links between small Canadian companies and big pharma are important for a sector as crucial as life sciences."

Diane Gosselin, President and CEO, CQDM

"We are delighted to see the growth and evolution of 48Hour Discovery in the Canadian biotech industry. As an organization investing in early, cutting-edge technologies, GlycoNet is proud to support 48Hour Discovery since its creation in accelerating drug discovery. We are also looking forward to continuing our partnership with CQDM to co-invest in innovative projects of great economic impact." said Elizabeth Nanak, CEO of GlycoNet.

We are very proud to support this initiative and help 48Hour Discovery extend the potential of this platform with the hopes to accelerate drug development and ultimately address unmet medical needs."

Jennifer Chan, Vice President, Policy and External Affairs, Merck Canada