This is the third phase of the Task Force for Cystic Fibrosis (TFCF) project, which began in March 2014 and aims to identify a compound or a combination of compounds that could serve as drug candidates for treating the underlying defect in CF patients with the DF508 mutation. The first two phases (Hit identification and Hit to lead) have been successfully completed: a group of compounds highly active in restoring CFTR function have been identified.

The third phase (Lead optimisation, 1 March 2016 – 31 August 2017) will aim to optimise these compounds, making them more potent and refining their safety, administrability and efficacy, to proceed to preclinical in vivo testing.