January 2, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
As pharmaceutical companies face generic competition as the result of the so-called “patent cliff,” some companies are attempting new strategies to reinvigorate pipeline products that failed to live up to their promise. AstraZeneca PLC and GlaxoSmithKline , as well as five other companies, have combined a library of 68 compounds that did not make it to market. The hope is that one of the other partners will be able to finish development and commercialize the product.
In April 2014 AstraZeneca entered into an agreement with the Medical Research Council (MRC) to run a joint research facility at AstraZeneca’s research and development center in Cambridge. The deal will run for five years, and both groups will have access to over two million molecules in AstraZeneca’s compound library, as well as its high throughput screening facilities.
“This is a unique collaboration that will give MRC researchers unparalleled access to AstraZeneca’s state-of-the-art screening capabilities, world-leading infrastructure and extensive, high quality compound library,” said John Savill, chief executive of the MRC in a statement. “The agreement demonstrates the MRC and AstraZeneca’s commitment to long term investment in UK infrastructure. It is an exciting move that will fast-track research that might not otherwise have been carried out, and will ultimately mean better treatments for patients.”
These types of open collaborations are seen as a shift away from the blockbuster drug focus and toward cooperative business models. Given the high-risk, high-reward nature of drug development, this has the potential to reduce the financial and time risk and cut costs at the R&D level.
The other companies involved in this new “virtual library” include Janssen Research & Development LLC, Lilly , Pfizer , Takeda and UCB. All the compounds in the library stalled at some point in early testing, but are considered to have potential against other diseases.
“This partnership between the Medical Research Council (MRC) and seven pharmaceutical companies is a fantastic example of open innovation that benefits both industry and academia by opening up new interesting avenues for research that may not otherwise be available, or even redirecting towards other diseases,” said Stephen Whitehead, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) in a statement. “The ABPI and our members are committed to greater collaboration with UK researchers and the whole of the academic community to improve our understanding of diseases so that we can continue to develop life-changing medicines for the benefit of patients.”
