Metabolism and Transport Drug Interaction Database

Project site: http://www.druginteractioninfo.org/
Express Licensing is available for the Drug Interaction Database.

A research project's funding sources affect its ability to distribute its innovations and work. Projects with many obligations to funding sources will be more restricted in their distribution options than projects with no obligations. Sponsored research will carry more conditions than gift money. The Drug Interaction Database project was funded entirely by gifts from pharmaceutical companies. The project was therefore able to explore more distribution options than if the database had been the result of a funding contract with limiting conditions. Digital Ventures was able to advise the project group to consider a broad range of development and licensing options.

Description

The Metabolism and Transport Drug Interaction Database is a Web-based search and analysis tool for pharmaceutical researchers. With the Drug Interaction Database, users can form detailed queries of the literature to correlate drug interactions with metabolic enzymes and transporters both in vitro (under artificial conditions) and in vivo (in a living organism). The primary audience of this version of the Drug Interaction Database is scientists within the pharmaceutical industry. Clinicians, hospital pharmacists, pharmaceutical course instructors, and students may also find the Drug Interaction Database to be a useful reference.

A team from the University of Washington's Department of Pharmaceutics led by Dr. René Levy, Department Chair; Dr. Isabelle Ragueneau, Research Associate; and Sonia Carlson, Technical Developer, created the Drug Interaction Database as part of a project researching methods and tools that improve the accessibility of drug interaction literature.

Technology Benefits

Drug interaction tools typically return a brief, narrative summary of drug interaction effects without citing the specific details of studies. The Drug Interaction Database, however, allows scientists to search peer-reviewed literature and ask specific questions about the content of drug interaction studies. The results of these queries draw from the published literature, display the conditions and results of the studies, and link to article abstracts in the National Library of Medicine's PubMed search service. The Drug Interaction Database also provides baseline information on all drugs cited in a given article, so in many cases, researchers do not have to find the source journal articles.

Development Background

Researchers from the University of Washington's School of Pharmacy have a long-standing interest in the field of drug interaction, and the Drug Interaction Database grew from that research interest. The data retrieval and display system for the Drug Interaction Database was developed by Applied Technical Systems (ATS) with its patented Contiguous Connection Model.

The research project was funded entirely by grants from pharmaceutical companies that recognized the potential benefits of the Drug Interaction Database. The project group expects to continue its research with the proceeds from the licensing fees. The University started licensing access to the Drug Interaction Database in January 2002.

Future Goals

Dr. Levy's team anticipates improving the Drug Interaction Database by including more features such as information downloads in standard formats. The team is also considering creating specialized database modules that focus on a subset of interactions, for example, of drugs that are used to treat a specific disease.

Digital Ventures' Role

Dr. Levy approached Digital Ventures in 1999 after his team had finished a prototype of the Drug Interaction Database. At that point, they had a system that interested the pharmaceutical companies who had given gifts to the project, and they wanted Digital Ventures to shepherd them through the licensing of the project's assets. They also needed assistance defining the University of Washington's relationship with a local company, Applied Technical Services (ATS).

To help them with these particular issues, Digital Ventures advised the research team on when to disclose the technology to the University. They helped the research project manage its relationships with the companies that had given gifts to the project and that were clearly interested in its work. Digital Ventures also wrote a memorandum of understanding between the University of Washington and ATS.

Besides these specific issues of licensing and rights management for the Drug Interaction Database, Digital Ventures encouraged the team to consider the broader goals and interests of the project. Keeping in mind the larger goals of the project can point the team in new directions, such as developing other pharmaceutical research tools and exploring ways to manage their technology.

Digital Ventures' experience in technology management complemented the research project's pharmaceutical research skills and helped guide the project through the software licensing process.

In the summer of 2003, the Drug Interaction Database team moved into the physical space Digital Ventures created to incubate projects. This physical proximity has improved Digital Ventures and the Drug Interaction Database's ability to share news and align goals.

Contact

Dr. Isabelle Ragueneau-Majlessi, Research Associate
Department of Pharmaceutics
University of Washington
Phone: (206) 543-4669
Fax: (206) 543-3204
E-mail: didbase@u.washington.edu

Published News

• Carlson, S. P., Ragueneau-Majlessi, I., Levy, R.H., & Bougan, T.E. (2002). Development of a metabolic drug interaction database at the University of Washington. In A. D. Rodrigues (Vol. Ed.), Drugs and the pharmaceutical sciences: Vol 116. Drug-drug interactions (pp. 549-563). New York: Marcel Dekker.