BARDA and Clarivate Partner to Identify Therapeutics Which Can Be Repurposed as Medical Countermeasures to Chemical Exposure

LONDON, Nov. 8, 2021

LONDON, Nov. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CLVT), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, today announced a new partnership with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which provides an integrated, systematic approach to the development of the necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies. The new collaboration will leverage Clarivate Consulting Service's computational approach in identifying therapeutics for potential repurposing as medical countermeasures (MCMs) against chlorine and sulfur mustard induced injuries.

Drug repurposing evaluates new uses, outside of the original clinical indication, for therapeutics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or in late-stage development. BARDA funding will aid in target identification and drug factor analyses to identify potential drugs for repurposing to treat chemical agent exposure. These drugs may affect biological pathways that are implicated in chemical agent exposure or in the body's response to it and may already treat analogous diseases with similar biology but different causes. Such drugs, particularly when highly available in our pharmaceutical supply chain, may be studied and developed in an accelerated manner to provide reserve capacity in response to exposure events.

Many chemical threats exist that can inflict injuries rapidly, and MCMs must be readily available to mitigate these risks. With conventional drug discovery involving costly and lengthy studies, using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and prioritize new targets for drug discovery and therapeutics that can be repurposed would help reduce the time and cost of preclinical drug development.

As a company at the forefront of target identification, indication prioritization, mechanism reconstruction and drug repurposing work in the pharmaceutical industry, Clarivate will identify drugs that are commonly available and can be used as MCMs for exposure to chemical agents. The Clarivate suite of research intelligence solutions used in the project will include MetaBase, Cortellis Drug Discovery Intelligence, OFF-X, and real-world data featured within the Clarivate Research Intelligence Cloud. Paired with deep domain expertise, Clarivate will evaluate genomic experiments, systems and computational biology, as well as known protein-protein interactions and molecular pathways accessed through its proprietary curated databases. This approach is expected to provide a fast, focused method for screening drug candidates most likely to be repurposed successfully for treating chemical exposures.

Mukhtar Ahmed, President, Science Group, Clarivate, said: "We are honored to be selected to partner with BARDA to identify medical countermeasures to treat chlorine gas exposure and the ocular and respiratory effects of sulfur mustard exposure. Clarivate will leverage its advanced products and consulting services teams designed to accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation, including its vast data sets and advanced analytics to enable faster evidence-based decision-making. These efforts will unlock hidden insights and provide new and unique perspectives using intelligence in ways not previously available to analyze relevant therapeutics."