Pharma losing in ‘valley of death’
pharmafile | February 21, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Bath, Evotec, pharma
An academic from Bath University has warned that much of pharma’s most promising research is being lost before it can be translated into products which get to market.
The phase between research and successful innovation is called the ‘valley of death,’ and Professor John Hudson believes that much valuable early-stage data is being swallowed up there rather than leading to innovation.
His paper, ‘Into the Valley of Death: Research and innovation in Drug Discovery Today’, suggests that the trend in the UK, Europe and the US for universities and pharma to collaborate on products is not yet working as it should.
Universities do not get a decent financial return on their research, he argues, and in the UK this means that drug research is not being used to the fullest advantage of the country’s economy as a whole.
However, he concedes that pharma’s increasing interest in involving itself with academic institutions at an early-stage of research will alter the state of play for the better. “While this situation is negative for drug development, there is an alternative, more positive scenario slowly emerging,” Hudson said.
“We’re starting to see industry, academia, research funders and even central government cooperating on commercialisation planning at the start of a research project,” he added.
As well as this “greater collaboration at the right time”, Hudson pointed to universities which are forming spin-out companies to take new drug discoveries further down the route to market.
This all means drug development will become more efficient and may therefore help bring more venture capital into the field.
Suggesting that academia is “becoming the de facto research arm of the pharma industry”, Hudson cites a variety of industry/university tie-ups in his paper.
These include Bristol-Myers Squibb’s collaboration with ten cancer research institutions in Europe and the US, and GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca’s links with the University of Manchester in translating basic research into new medicines for inflammatory diseases.
He also mentions Harvard University’s agreement with Evotec and Janssen Pharmaceuticals on a portfolio of products designed to trigger the regeneration of insulin-producing cells.
Specific support for translational research also comes from the EU’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the MRC’s Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme, he acknowledges.
Yet despite this he is pessimistic about UK universities’ ability to improve what he says is a poor record in exploiting their own research for financial gain.
“In part this is because they do not have the resources to bargain with big pharma on an equal footing, and in part because such exploitation is contrary to their traditional emphasis on disseminating knowledge as widely and freely as possible,” he insists.
But he argues that a more fundamental problem persists: research funders are still using what he calls ‘older, linear’ innovation models “and don’t consider the commercialisation of outcomes until too late in the process, often when a research project in near to completion”.
The winners in this scenario are foreign-based multinationals and foreign economies, he suggests, which do benefit from research which the UK seems unable fully to harness.
“Public money is being used not just to promote research per se but also increasingly as a tool of industrial and economic policy to provide the cutting edge products and services which will enable firms to compete in the global economy,” Hudson goes on.
“This is happening throughout the EU and indeed the US too,” he concludes. “But the tool is not finely honed.”
Adam Hill
Related Content
Evotec and Bayer announce new kidney disease study
Evotec and Bayer have announced the initiation of a phase 2 clinical study in kidney …
LGC Group opens $100M Organic Chemistry Synthesis Centre of Excellence
LGC Group, a life sciences company, has opened its new Organic Chemistry Synthesis Centre of …
Johnson & Johnson announces successful results from trial for myeloma treatment
Global healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson, announced that analysis of its Darzalex (daratumumab) therapy showed …
