The founders of the International Drug Discovery Institute (iDDi) plan to use medicinal and computational chemistry, allied to high throughput screening to select drug candidates before outsourcing in vitro and in vivo biological studies.

Dr Alan Kozikowski, founder and chief science officer of iDDi believes the innovative set-up could skirt barriers that have hampered traditional drug discovery in the past.

"Through my long career in drug discovery, I have found it incredibly frustrating that every year, millions of human beings still perish from diseases that could and should be curable," he said.

"We know that the world's best scientific minds - collaborating on promising, new drug candidates - and empowered by new machine-based screening technologies, could launch a Manhattan-style project that would wipe these diseases from the face of the earth."

The scientists at iDDi are aiming to specifically target neglected and orphan diseases, and the institute has already approached other major philanthropic foundations which have similar goals.

Neglected diseases are classed as those where the last commercialised drugs were developed decades ago. iDDi hopes to bring new medications to the millions of people who suffer from malaria, TB and toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that can cause eye and brain damage to unborn babies. Between them, these diseases cause at least three million deaths every year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Orphan diseases are much rarer and therefore often neglected by a profit-driven pharmaceutical industry - hence their name. The iDDi has marked out several diseases to research in this category, including Rett Syndrome, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Huntington's disease and HIV-associated dementia.

Drugs that target these diseases may also hit protein targets that are involved in other diseases. The institute will also take this into account and may develop drugs against breast cancer, diabetes, pancreatic cancer, and melanoma.

Before its work can begin in earnest, the institute must select two operating sites, one for its US headquarters and the other as an international R&D hub. Candidates are currently being studied.