Boehringer Ingelheim launched a platform to share well-characterized preclinical compounds with the biomedical community. These can be used as probes to explore mechanistic and phenotypic biology.

The company is currently offering nearly 20 molecular probes through its opnME portal for free, without intellectual property restrictions. These probes act on various targets, including aurora B, autotaxin, soluble epoxide hydrolase and SYK. Targets include kinases, GPCRs, ion channels and epigenetic actors from across cardiometabolic, respiratory, oncology, central nervous system and immunology therapeutic areas.

A subset of probes will only be available through collaborative research projects with Boehringer Ingelheim scientists. They are currently soliciting research proposals to test an SGLT6 inhibitor, for example.

“Working together with scientists across the world, we can accelerate research in a wide range of biomedical research areas,” says Clive Wood, senior vice-president of Discovery Research at Boehringer Ingelheim. “This exciting new initiative further expands Boehringer Ingelheim's global external innovation footprint and will help unlock the full potential of some of our most interesting compounds.”

The company also launched a search tool called BI Miner that can simultaneously search the scientific literature, patent databases and clinical trial resources for therapeutic targets and drug discovery concepts.

Boehringer Ingelheim is also a member of the Structural Genomics Consortium, a public–private partnership of academic groups and pharmaceutical companies that has released nearly 60 probes to the biomedical community.

The Chemical Probes Portal, a free resource that reviews chemical probes, currently ranks only around 125 compounds as high-quality chemical probes. They also list around 250 'historic compounds' that are not sufficiently selective or potent for such use.