Annual Activities Report 2011 - INCT-Inofar - UFRJ

Annual Report 2011 | INCT-INOFAR
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Editorial
EDITORIAL
This is the third edition of the Annual Activities Report of the National Institute of Science and
Technology in Drugs and Medicines (INCT-INOFAR), describing the activities conducted during
2011. We have chosen the same format as the one used in the previous years, including the results of the
research subprojects in radical innovation in drugs as well as of those relating to incremental innovation,
in accordance with our mission and vocation.
In the field of radical innovation, design, planning, synthesis and evaluation of substances candidate for
new drugs, we act in six areas, compatible with the expertise of the teams associated with the INCT-
INOFAR network, which include inflammation, pulmonary disease, especially chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, pain, central nervous system, cardiovascular system, as well as chemotherapy for cancer
and antiparasitary, especially leishmaniasis. In this radical innovation environment, we have achieved
significant results, especially in the subprojects classified as advanced in the chain of drug innovation.
Nevertheless, all the other subprojects have seen significant progress that has led us to conclude, in our V
Follow-Up and Evaluation Meeting, in November 2011, that we need to reorganize the INCT-INOFAR
portfolio for the following two years, according to the previously established timeline.
INCT-INOFAR established, on November 18, 2011, a cooperation agreement with the Interdisciplinary
Center of Pharmacogenomics and Pharmaceutical Research (ICEPHA) of the University of Tübingen,
Germany. Through this deal, we broaden the international scope of INCT-INOFAR and the bases for
scientific exchange and the development of innovative research projects in new drugs. On the other
hand, the agreement establishes the organization of scientific and academic activities, like courses,
conferences, seminars, symposiums, or lectures, and the exchange of researchers and/or students, as well
as the exchange of materials and publications of mutual interest.
In the field of incremental innovation, we have achieved very valuable results that have crowned the
efforts of the research groups led by Professors Angelo da Cunha Pinto of the Institute of Chemistry at
UFRJ and Luiz Carlos Dias, of the Institute of Chemistry at UNICAMP, who by supervising the work of
Doctors Barbara Vasconcelos Silva and Adriano Siqueira Vieira, at UFRJ and UNICAMP, respectively,
have concluded the synthesis of two important drugs, sunitinib and fluoxetine, respectively. The first is
an important tyrosine-kinase inhibitor, still under patent, indicated for the control of stomach cancer,
with countless judicial sentences that force the national health care system (SUS) to spend a significant
amount of money to carry out. The route developed, at a bench scale (2g), represents a significant