Wrocław University of Science and Technology signed an agreement with the Japanese company Peptide Institute Inc. for the distribution of chemical compounds that can be used to search for the cure for COVID-19. These compounds were developed in the laboratory of Prof. Marcin Drąg from the Department of Biological Chemistry and Bioimaging.

The commercialization relates to the research started at Wrocław University of Science and Technology at the turn of February and March, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic broke out. At that time, Professor Marcin Drąg's team started research into the proteolytic enzyme SARS-CoV-2-Mpro, which has a very important function, consisting in causing the processing of immature virus proteins.

In his laboratory, our scientist's team profiled such enzymes using their own-developed technology and determined the so-called substrate specificity. The scientists managed to examine the protease, compare it to that of the previous SARS epidemic, and develop compounds that selectively inhibit its action.

Importantly, all the results of the research conducted in the laboratory so far have been made available free of charge and without any patents.

– Our paper, published in March, dealt with several compounds that were immediately noticed around the world as compounds used to diagnose this enzyme, which is considered to be crucial in the search for medications to treat the coronavirus. We decided to send these compounds for free to all academic laboratories in the world that asked us to do so – says Prof. Marcin Drąg.

At that time, our scientist was also approached by several companies interested in commercialising the research results. After several months of negotiations, an agreement was reached with the Japanese company Peptide Institute Inc., which obtained the right – but not an exclusivity-based – to produce and sell chemical compounds (fluorogenic substrates) developed at WUST. The cost of 1 mg of the compounds was valued at $100.

The 10-year agreement assumes that Wrocław University of Science and Technology will receive annual royalties from the sales of these compounds. Besides, our scientists will receive a certain quantity of substrates from the company, which they will be able to distribute at their discretion, provided that all Polish academic institutions researching COVID-19 will be able to receive these compounds for free.

– Judging by what interest in our compounds we have seen among researchers so far, we can assume that many companies will also be interested in buying them. The agreement is very beneficial for us, as it completely relieves our laboratory of the burden of producing these substrates. Before we produced them on our own and it was very absorbing, while now we’ll be able to focus only on research – stresses Prof.  Marcin Drąg.

The compounds developed for WUST are used, among other things, for quick diagnostics, and now they are applied primarily to retarget drugs, i.e. check drugs currently available on the medicine market for their use in treating new diseases – in this case, COVID-19.

– This type of research is carried out not only by large pharmaceutical companies, which have large drug databases but also by academic institutions, including WUST. We’ve recently bought 3 thousand drugs approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for our laboratory and we already have some interesting results. We’re going to send an article on this subject in the coming 2-3 weeks – announces Prof.  Marcin Drąg.

It should be stressed that the 10-year agreement will enable not only the search for drugs to treat the current coronavirus but also research in terms of drugs for other coronaviruses, which are bound to appear in the future.

Peptide Institute, Inc. cooperates with many companies, so the distribution of compounds for research and their availability will be global.

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