Funding: Drug repurposing call to treat chronic respiratory infection – second phase

People with bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis and other chronic respiratory conditions require treatments that address the vicious cycle of infection, inflammation and lung damage. Approaches involving repurposing and reformulation of existing drugs are potentially a more rapid way to bring treatments to patients. As part of our Chronic Respiratory Infection Translational Challenge, in November 2022 we launched a £10 million funding call to find projects seeking to develop therapeutics with a clear rationale to address the underlying vicious cycle in bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis. We now have a portfolio of projects underway and are looking to add to this in a second round of funding.  

We have £3 million funds available and anticipate funding up to 3 projects. Funding will support drug repurposing projects that seek to conduct translational studies, from proof of concept and preclinical studies through to clinical studies, in order to progress existing drugs through the development path towards patients. It is anticipated that funded projects would be 2-3 years in length. Drug repurposing projects should have the potential to move treatments quickly to patients.  

LifeArc will work with applicants to advise and shape proposals and project plans. 

Further information on drug repurposing can be found here:

LifeArc-MRC Repurposing medicines toolkit launched in 2022
MRC LifeArc Chronic Respiratory Infection  joint workshop conducted in May 2022  

Projects should seek to develop compounds that are repurposed, including reformulation. Proposed solutions should target the vicious cycle of infection, inflammation and lung damage, and should ideally have broad potential benefits for people with bronchiectasis, and CF. This might include muco-ciliary clearance, infection, and inflammation.  

There should be a clear rationale for such use, and the research should be directed at rapidly progressing repurposed drug(s) to the clinic. The projects should take advantage of molecules that have sufficient data, which may include toxicity and PK/PD, to provide the basis to support rapid progress to patient treatment. Applicants should consider how the treatment will eventually be provided to patients. For instance, will there be a need for a Market Authorisation extension of a currently branded medicine, off-label use, or change in guidelines,  and what the current drug supply situation is for the original indication. 

Applications can be at any stage providing they are focused on developing drug repurposing; from the development of candidate molecules to clinical stage testing.

Due consideration will be paid to intellectual property (IP), ownership of the drugs, and current authorisation. Applicants should be able to describe how they will access and/or develop relevant IP and how patients will have downstream access to repurposed drug(s). 

Applications should have a clear project scope, fitting within the funding call remit, and a clear project plan that defines the key project deliverables. In a final application, project deliverables should lead to clearly defined project milestones which should be SMART with go/no-go criteria. LifeArc may be able to assist with milestone shaping and project planning for applications that reach full application stage. 

What is not in scope?

• New drug discovery projects, high throughput screening, hit to lead discovery and medicinal chemistry development, will not be considered
• LifeArc is not looking to fund basic or mechanistic research, which could include drug discovery or target identification projects 
• This fund will not support projects that do not have a primary focus of potentially benefitting people with bronchiectasis and/or CF by targeting the vicious cycle of infection, inflammation and lung damage 

All applicants are asked to complete a brief screening questionnaire that will determine whether your project is within the scope of this repurposing fund.

Please see ‘What we are looking for‘ section above for further details on remit.

The opportunity is open to academic, SMEs and government-based organisations based in the UK or abroad. 

To apply for funding, you as the lead organisation must be based at one of the following organisations: 

• Academic organisation 
• SMEs 
• Government organisations such as: public sector research establishment (PSRE) and UK Catapult. 

Large industrial organisations can apply as co-investigators but may not request funding. Ideally, projects should be collaborative. Applicants will be required to demonstrate that the assembled team have the necessary experience, expertise and access to facilities to deliver the proposed project plan. 

The principal investigator should have demonstrable experience in leading multi-investigator and multidisciplinary consortia or, at a minimum, applicants should demonstrate their potential to lead and manage a large-scale collaborative project. 

Lead applicants may only submit one application as the lead. 

LifeArc is seeking to commit £3 million in total in this call and anticipate funding up to three projects. For successful applications awarded funding, payments will be milestoned. Project progress and payment will be assessed by achievement of milestones that will be monitored by a regular joint steering group meetings, which will include LifeArc representation, throughout the lifecycle of the project. 

For applicants based academic organisations, such as universities, LifeArc will fund directly incurred costs (if you are at a university, speak to your university financial administrator for further detail on directly incurred costs). 

While costs for items of capital equipment may be eligible as part of an application if they are critical to the overarching aim of the project and robustly justified, LifeArc are not looking to support applications with significant costs allocated to purchase of equipment or physical infrastructure building. 

Applications will be assessed for value for money and justification for all costs should be provided at the full application stage.   

To submit an expression of interest (EOI) you’ll need to start with completing a short online eligibility checking process which, if your eligibility is confirmed, will give you access to a further questionnaire.

If completion of the questionnaire indicates an appropriate threshold has been met and the project could be within remit, applicants may be invited to an online discussion with our partnership team. This online call will allow the partnership team to better understand the project and whether it is likely to be within remit. In this discussion, the partnership team may be able to offer further advice and shaping of project proposed in the EOI. 

Applicants must have submitted an EOI via the online questionnaire and had a call (if invited) with the partnerships team in order for the EOI to be shortlisted for panel review and potentially invited to submit a full application. 

Deadline for completion of the online questionnaire to submit an EOI and to have conducted a meeting with the partnerships team (if invited) is 15 January 2025. 

Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their EOI via completion of the online questionnaire as soon as they can and in advance of the deadline to allow a call (if invited) with the partnerships team to take place.   

You can download the full terms and conditions here.

Successful full applications will comprise a project with a clearly defined scope and a clearly defined project plan that defines the key deliverables. These deliverables will lead to defined milestones and go/no go criteria allowing the project to be tracked to ensure progress to agreed quality/time and cost targets. These will also help to determine the likelihood of achieving the defined outputs and outcomes. 

Project progress and payment will be assessed by achievement of milestones that will be monitored within joint steering group meetings, which will include LifeArc representation, throughout the lifecycle of the project. 

Where necessary, LifeArc will offer access to expertise/consultants to advise on critical paths, data packages for follow on funding, engaging with regulators, IP strategy and commercialisation advice.