Experimental Medicine INitiative to Explore New Therapies - Phase 2

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Infrastructure costs around EMINENT to cover core funding for the network in the second phase. For more details, please see Strategy Board paper SB-14-30 and SB-19-New targets and approaches and tools for the evaluation of diseases for which pharmaceutical
interest has traditionally been low.
Importantly, this initiative will focus on academic centres with existing partnerships and evidence of
a productive working relationship with GSK to ensure an agile and responsive network. This will
allow both rapid implementation and the successful delivery of projects in a timely and cost effective
manner. Each of the core centres also has an established Biomedical Research Centre (or its
Scottish equivalent), and will provide complementary expertise in disease areas that can take full
advantage of the active UK-based GSK R&D effort, namely: immuno-inflammation, respiratory
disease, and fibrosis. The close alignment of the participating centres will foster the formation of
inter-institutional alliances and participation in the Network is predicated on a willingness to
collaborate and share academic expertise and resource, with the potential to access larger patient
cohorts. All partners are also committed to ensuring that there is a training element within each
project in order to develop the next generation of researchers who are flexible and able to cross
boundaries and work in both the academic and industry environments.
Projects plans will be developed jointly by the academic and GSK investigators. Vital to the success of
the initiative is the up-front commitment GSK has made to providing unique target and drug
discovery expertise, existing licensed drugs and clinic-ready compounds, and access to state-of-the
art platform technologies. All clinical studies will be fully sponsored by GSK, thereby allowing the
Network to benefit from its full operational, regulatory, analytical and statistical capabilities.
Importantly, the Network will focus solely on projects which currently sit outside GSK’s portfolio
activities, although they could potentially represent a source of future drug development
opportunities.
Hence the key principles of the EMINENT initiative are:
Enhancing disease understanding in diseases of high unmet need, outside the current focus of
the GSK portfolio
Collaboration across participating institutions to deliver the best science
Milestone-driven approach to conduct well designed experimental medicine projects to increase
understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of human disease
Matched MRC and GSK, in-kind, funding, building expertise and infrastructure in the UK
Training and the exchange of knowledge and skills between academic partners and GSK
Prompt publication of data
This document outlines the vision, proposed working procedures, governance, and expected
outcomes of EMINENT, together with a selection of illustrative, exemplar projects to showcase the
potential value and impact of this initiative.