Pharma R&D ‘untenable’
pharmafile | April 25, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | GlobalData, R&D
The current model by which pharma carries out R&D is ‘untenable’, according to a new report.
But the research, from consulting firm GlobalData, says that more partnerships with academic and non-profit organisations could plug the so-called ‘innovation gap’.
“The current R&D paradigm is bloated, duplicative, expensive, and in the long run, untenable,” says GlobalData’s healthcare industry dynamics team analyst Adam Dion.
“There is a growing consensus in the industry that these challenges must be met collectively by bringing together public, private and government organisations to create multi-lateral collaborations to drive the next wave of scientific discovery,” he went on.
The report ‘PharmaSphere: Early-Stage Technology Transfer Collaborations’ looked at the terms, platform technologies, and deal rationale of 25 pharma-academic alliances from 2012-2013.
Based on this it argues that collaboration in drug development gives academia a new source of research funding and offers pharma a partner to share the risks of bringing medicines to market.
“Many industry participants are now considering a move from an old and inflexible R&D paradigm to a more collaborative and open ecosystem that fosters creativity and information sharing,” Dion says.
He calls this “a substantial cultural shift for an industry with a high level of reluctance to share anything” and describes greater co-operation between rival drug companies and non-profit organisations as “a difficult pill for big pharma to swallow”.
But in some ways, of course, the report merely highlights what has been a growing trend.
Pharma and academia have been increasingly joining forces – as in Bristol-Myers Squibb’s collaboration with ten cancer research institutions in Europe and the US.
GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca have also linked up with the University of Manchester in translating basic research into new medicines for inflammatory diseases.
And another recent case is Harvard University’s agreement with Evotec and Janssen Pharmaceuticals on a portfolio of products designed to trigger the regeneration of insulin-producing cells.
These were all cited in a report earlier this year by an academic from Bath University who warned of the ‘valley of death’ for early-stage R&D.
But he warned that the trend in Europe and the US for academia and pharma to collaborate on products is not yet working as it should – in part because universities do not get a decent financial return on their research.
Despite this, Professor John Hudson said, academia is “becoming the de facto research arm of the pharma industry”.
The new GlobalData report takes up some of these themes, with Dion suggesting that what he calls a “dearth of innovative drugs on the current pharmaceutical landscape” can be put down at least partly to wasteful R&D activity.
Too many FDA approvals were for ‘me-too’ drugs or “medications aimed at niche therapy areas”, he said.
Adam Hill
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