Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

The pharmaceutical industry is constantly seeking for new drugs. Classic drug development works with small,chemically manufactured active-substance molecules. While this approach has led to the marketing of severaldrugs, small molecules do not meet all needs. Many illnesses or conditions require the use of more complexdrugs such as the biologicals. This class of drugs encompasses molecules such as vaccines and proteins.However, their poor oral availability requires that these drugs must be injected rather than taken orally. Inaddition, this class of drugs is very expensive, putting a lot of pressure on health systems costs.To overcome those problems, a new class of drugs has emerged recently and gain popularity. Macrocyclicdrugs have broad applications in drug discovery and development; and numerous natural macrocycliccompounds present exceptional therapeutic potential and unrivalled biological activities. Several companiesinvolved in drug development offer technologies to synthesize such molecules. This project will be done incollaboration with such a company which has developed its own platform and already produced a largecompound library. Besides the assessment of the biological activity of these molecules, their bioavailabilityshould be tested before going further in their preclinical development. The main objective of this project is todevelop analytical procedures for the determination of small-molecule macrocycle concentrations in plasma.These methods are required for pharmacokinetic (PK) studies in animals.By supporting development initiatives in such companies, Canada continues to play a leadership role in thebiopharmaceutical R&D. With the rising costs of health care services and the burden on governments andindividuals, the development of more affordable drugs such as macrocycles is in line with global health carecost reduction efforts.