The Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS)

Better medicines by design

Every day, MIPS researchers dedicate their time to researching and designing better medicines.

We are Australia's largest, most experienced and successful group of pharmaceutical scientists. Over 160 scientists and 120 PhD students undertake basic and translational drug discovery, drug delivery and drug development research in new, state-of-the-art laboratories on Monash's Parkville campus.

MIPS was established in 2008 and builds upon the ground-breaking research activities of the Victorian College of Pharmacy, Monash University, developers of the Relenza flu treatment.

Our internationally recognised institute strives to conduct the most insightful science in our field by the best researchers and research students in world-class facilities.

Our contemporary and collaborative organisational structure enables our research to occur where our core scientific disciplines meet. Collaboration at these disciplinary interfaces is expected to transform medicine design and development outcomes.

Research with impact

Our research is having an impact on people's health around the world. Our major successes include:

  • working collaboratively to discover and design the influenza treatment Relenza™
  • forming Acrux Limited to commercialise new medicines, based on breakthrough transdermal drug-delivery technology
  • gaining new therapeutic insights from exploring G protein-coupled receptors as drug targets  
  • developing ADME-informed lead optimisation programs in collaboration with a range of discovery partners, which has led to 16 new drug candidates advancing to human clinical trials
  • joining the Cancer Therapeutics CRC, which is designing new cancer drugs, as a foundation research partner
  • undertaking collaborative drug-discovery partnerships for neglected tropical diseases, where the lead project is a potential single-dose oral cure for malaria
  • leading the re-purposing of colistin for treating drug-resistant bacterial infections
  • developing new drug delivery concepts for improving the absorption of orally administered, poorly water-soluble drugs
  • advancing structure-based and fragment-based approaches for designing new drugs.

Therapeutic focus

We focus on oncology, infectious disease, pain and inflammation, neuroscience and metabolic disease.

Drug research – from discovery to the clinic

We integrate research from four fundamental research themes to identify, develop, optimise and deliver new drug treatments – ultimately translating basic research into clinical trials.

Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation
Drug delivery, disposition and dynamics
Drug discovery biology
Medicinal chemistry

Delivering Australian-based pharmaceutical research to the world

Our researchers are leaders in their fields. Their brilliance and dedication ensures that better medicines of world significance are discovered, researched and designed right here in Australia.

Our talented staff include international leaders in G protein-coupled receptor biology, translational medicinal chemistry, structural biology, lead candidate optimisation and drug delivery.

Industry partners and collaborators

We have strong partnerships with industry leaders, including the global drug companies Servier and GlaxoSmithKline. In total, we have long-term collaborative research programs with more than 20 biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

We also collaborate with leading national and international research institutes and universities and attract substantial support from industry, government and funding agencies.

Our supporters include the ARC, NHMRC, Victorian State Government Science Agenda, Health Workforce Australia, the National Institutes of Health in the US, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and various commercial and philanthropic organisations.