iCAIR®: International Consortium for Anti-Infective Research

As a close-knit research alliance, iCAIR^® is working on the development of anti-infective therapies that take new treatment options all the way from the identification of potentially beneficial substances to the preclinical proof of concept. In selected lighthouse projects, iCAIR^® is establishing and demonstrating its position as an expert preclinical development platform for new anti-infective drugs. One objective of these projects is to target new treatments to combat the pathogens Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aspergillus fumigatus, Neisseria meningitidis, different respiratory viruses such as the human parainfluenza and influenza viruses, RSV, and coronaviruses, and develop these treatments to the point of preclinical proof of concept.

The development platform established in the iCAIR^® project will be made available to external partners in addition to its use in proprietary projects. This is geared towards contract research in the pharmaceutical industry as well as small and medium-sized enterprises and publicly funded projects. iCAIR^® thereby enables them to develop their early-stage compounds to the stage of preclinical proof of concept ready to go into regulatory development for market approval or, depending on the business model, out-licensing to big pharmaceutical players. Either way, iCAIR^® contributes to filling the empty pipelines in anti-infective drug development to address the current global threat of antimicrobial resistance and new infectious diseases.