BIO Release: New Research Shows Growing Industry-Academic Ties In Advancing New Medicines To Improve Patient Lives

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and Battelle’s Technology Partnership Practice today released a report highlighting the growing and essential nature of industry-academic collaborations that bridge the gap between bioscience discoveries and the delivery of innovative products to improve medical outcomes in patients.

“This report demonstrates the contribution of industry and academic partners across the four stages that all translational research must pass through in bringing new treatments to patients – basic research, technology development, clinical trials, and new product launch”

The report, Advancing Translational Research for Biomedical Innovation: Measuring Industry-University Connections, benchmarks progress a decade after the NIH Roadmap and the FDA Critical Path Report brought significant public attention and new programmatic efforts to advance translational research.

“Industry-academic collaborations are widely recognized as a critical ingredient for accelerating translational research, both to improve R&D productivity and reduce the costs of translating discoveries into new medical products,” said BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood. “This new research demonstrates exactly how critical such collaborations are, and how quickly these ties are expanding.”

The study was presented at the 2015 BIO International Convention, as part of the Translational Research Forum, where industry and academic thought leaders explore ways to overcome stagnating government funding for both basic biomedical research and early-stage technologies struggling to cross the ‘valley of death.’

“This report demonstrates the contribution of industry and academic partners across the four stages that all translational research must pass through in bringing new treatments to patients – basic research, technology development, clinical trials, and new product launch,” stated Mitch Horowitz, Vice President at Battelle. “This study also goes beyond just the numbers by demonstrating some of the exciting developments that are advancing translational research.”

Highlights from the data analysis include:

• Early-stage biomedical research accounted for 49% of all industry-funded university research in 2013, totaling $1.73 billion. This is by far the highest area of industry funding for university research and shows the close connection at the earliest stages of translational research between the biopharmaceutical industry and universities.
• Industry reliance upon academic research, as measured by patents citing academic research, has grown 81.5% since 2000.
• During the 2010–2014 period, 93% of novel chemical entity drugs and novel biologics associated with patent-protected intellectual property cited academic research. This is up significantly from the 2000–2004 period, when 64% of novel chemical entity drugs and 79% of novel biologics cited academic research.

Highlights of the emerging industry-academic collaboration models, include:

• Increasing multi-institutional/multi-company collaborations
• Partnerships of clinicians, engineers and scientists and fostering new venture development approaches.
• Increasing regional partnerships of academic translational research centers, Contract Research Organizations and centralized patient repositories.
• More applied research capacities in areas such as experimental therapeutic centers and advanced biomanufacturing centers.

The full report can be found on the BIO website at: http://bio.org/TranslationalResearch

About Battelle

Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries. For more information, visit www.battelle.org.

About BIO

BIO is the world’s largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIOtechNOW is BIO’s blog chronicling “innovations transforming our world” and the BIO Newsletter is the organization’s bi-weekly email newsletter. Subscribe to the BIO Newsletter.