GHP January 2016

ghp January 2016 | 29 innovation & technology The increasing cost of developing new medicines is driving significant change in the pharmaceutical industry with companies aspiring to access up to 50% of their development pipeline externally, from biotechnology companies and academia, via risk-shar- ing partnership models. New models are emerging to facilitate a deeper engagement with academia to access novel drug targets including GlaxoSmithKline’s Discovery Partnerships in Academia, Daiichi Sankyo TaNeDS (Take a New Challenge for Drug diScovery), and the Rare Disease Consortium (RDC) between Pfiz- er and the Global Medical Excellence Cluster (GMEC) partners. Despite the development of these sophisti- cated models many novel drug targets discovered in academia are insufficiently validated for partnership with industry. Whilst the role of BioPharma has long been recog- nised in the discovery and development of new drugs we have seen a more recent shift towards the devel- opment of academic drug discovery centres. Leading examples include the University of Dundee Drug Discovery Unit, the Lead Discovery Centre GmbH (jointly developed by Max Planck Innovation and the Max Planck Society) and the Karolinska Institutet in Europe; as well as the Translational Research Institute at Scripps Florida and the Center for Chemical Diversi- ty at UCSF in the United States. These centres work to diverse business models but are unified in their remit to capitalize on the potential of excellent basic re- search for the discovery of new therapies for diseases with high medical need in a way that is complementa- ry to the BioPharma industry and can generate benefit to patients. A key role for academic drug discovery centres in the translational pathway, from novel target identification through to the delivery of new drugs, is to accelerate the identification of novel drug targets by accessing ground-breaking blue-sky research and providing early validation to support the delivery of tractable drug targets, with high quality lead chemical matter, to satisfy industry demand. The development of closer working relationships between academia and industry can provide powerful partnerships and bring different skills together that will undoubtedly optimise academic efforts in this area. Success lies in finding the right partnership and creating a true collaboration, based on mutual respect and trust, where the parties are delivering against shared goals and objectives. Such relationships can be exemplified in some of the many public-private partnerships models developed to provide treatments for some of the world’s most neglected diseases. Partnerships such as the Tuberculosis Drug Accel- erator (TBDA) show how industry and academia can work together in new ways to support global health innovation. A partnership between eight pharmaceuti- cal companies, eight research institutes and a product development partnership (PDP), the TBDA is working to develop a new TB regimen through collaboration in early-stage drug discovery research. Under the “um- brella” of the TBDA supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this partnership allows academic scientists to work closely with industry towards agreed target product profiles with master agreements in place to allow material and knowledge sharing across all parties. Whilst PDP models common in tackling diseases of the developing world cannot be simply replicated in the more competitive, commercial disease areas there are learnings to be had from this type of interaction. Although BioPharma is seeking to engage with aca- demic investigators and drug discovery centres there remains a reluctance to truly recognise and reward the role that academic drug discovery plays in the vali- dation of new drug targets, where attrition is high, and development of underpinning target biology. Possible advantages that could be had by a close collabora- tive relationship, sharing compounds and associated knowledge, can become swamped by concerns over intellectual property and downstream development rights and returns. The anticipated establishment of new academic drug discovery centres and continued success of estab- lished groups; for example, the University of Dundee, Drug Discovery Unit’s malaria candidate entering clinical development with Medicines for Malaria Venture and Merck Serono, should see a greater trust develop between academia and industry. Appropriate- ly resourced academic centres can deliver a pipeline of lead molecules and preclinical assets to bolster BioPharma pipelines providing greater opportunity to advance innovation in partnership for the benefit of patients. By Dr Julie Brady, Business Development Manager, Drug Discovery Unit