Boehringer Ingelheim Uses Crowdsourcing to Establish COPD Team

  German drugmakers Boehringer Ingelheim and BioMed X have applied a crowdsourcing approach to establish a research team of scientists to identify new approaches for the treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).    Michel Pairet, Senior Corporate Vice President of Research and Non-clinical Development at Boehringer Ingelheim said “[W]e firmly believe that crowd sourcing is an exciting and refreshing way to find unconventional solutions based on the diversity of talents and ideas. This project is ideally suited to integrate breakthrough science in epigenetics research and emerging insights into the pathophysiology of COPD. Understanding epigenetic mechanisms will allow us to discover unknown drivers of the disease and accelerate the discovery of new medicines for treating patients with COPD”.   
The research team will be sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim for two years with the option to extend the funding period up to a total of four years.