Finding Cures in Early Research

New models to discover innovation emerge

“The quest for innovation has seen most of the large pharmas develop a model for academic-industry collaboration,” noted Laura Vitez, principal business analyst, Thomson Reuters Recap. “It involves fostering local innovation in hubs of academic excellence.” It’s a simple concept, but one that is likely to have a huge impact going forward.

It means company researchers are working alongside leading academic scientists. If a drug candidate proves promising, it can be quickly moved into more clinical testing. In order to stay current on the vast sea of evolving biotechnologies, pharmas are using this model to cast a wide net to capture the most promising scientific innovations.

New York-based Pfizer Inc., for example, established its Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) in 2010 and has more than 23 programs across a network of labs that are located in San Diego, San Francisco, Boston and New York. The open innovation model enables Pfizer and academic teams to work side-by-side, blending the research expertise of academics in disease biology, targets and patient populations with the company’s developmental expertise and resources.

One of CTI’s most recent collaborations, for example, was established with the Jeffrey Modell Foundation (JMF), based in New York, to conduct research in the field of immunological diseases. The Foundation was established by Vicki and Fred Modell in memory of their son Jeffrey, who died from complications of primary immunodeficiency, a serious genetic condition that is often fatal.

The goal will be to identify and co-fund translational research projects at medical centers within the CTI network that leads to a potential drug candidate for an immunological disease that can be moved into further clinical testing.

Johnson & Johnson also has its Innovation Centers working in overdrive; since their 2013 launch more than 200 deals have been inked including the first alliance for the Disease Interception Accelerator (DIA), a research agreement with Washington University to identify the root cause of type 1 diabetes and enable the development of interventions that halt progression of the disease. The collaboration will investigate the role of antigen-presenting cells in the initiation and progression of type 1 diabetes in humans.

The ability to detect and potentially intercept type 1 diabetes in at-risk individuals before the disease sets in or insulin dependence develops has the potential to greatly improve health and well-being.

An interesting project designed to address mounting costs of testing human responses to candidate therapeutics that often shelve promising drugs before they see the light of day is being undertaken by Janssen Biotech Inc., a J&J division.

The Johnson & Johnson Boston-based innovation center helped forge a partnership between Janssen Biotech and Cambridge, Mass.-based Emulate Inc., a spinout of Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, where Janssen intends to test its therapeutic candidates in Emulate’s Organs-on-Chips technology. Specifically, it will focus on three R&D programs: Lung-on-Chip and Thrombosis-on-Chip to evaluate pulmonary thrombosis; Liver-on-Chip to predict liver toxicity, a major cause of drug failures in the clinic; and an undisclosed third area.

Rights to any discoveries related to the platforms go to Emulate, and Janssen can extend the collaboration beyond the initial three programs to include other organs, disease models or drugs. “It could really help us with human physiology and pharmacology before we get into the clinic and into humans,” said Michelle Browner, senior director of platform innovation and partnership management at J&J Innovation Center.

Grand challenges

In areas such as neurology, industry-academic collaborations are believed to be the only way to proceed for diseases such as schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease. In March 2015, a global Dementia Discovery Fund initiated by the UK government and set up by J.P. Morgan was launched at the World Health Organization's (WHO) first ministerial conference on dementia in Geneva. It provided an initial $100 million to fund preclinical and early stage research in the field. Support for the initiative is also forthcoming from a number of pharma companies, including Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK), Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Co., Pfizer Inc. and big biotech Biogen Inc.

The aim of the fund is to identify new avenues of research from around the world. It will be structured as a traditional VC fund but will be the first such global initiative to invest solely in dementia projects.

Speaking to the dementia conference, Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO said, "I can think of no other disease where innovation, including breakthrough discoveries to develop a cure, is so badly needed."

With Sembragiline, the selective monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibitor from Evotec AG and recent Alzheimer’s disease clinical trial setback, patients and their caregivers are hoping that the new model for translational research will reap dividends in what remains one of medicine's most intractable conditions.

Patients win, too

The new milieu in drug research is also a huge plus for patients suffering from devastating diseases with few treatment options. Collaborative research is helping companies gain a much better understanding of diseases that will ultimately improve their success rate for the discovery of new potential treatments.

Productivity is already up, too. Last year, the FDA reported that there were 41 new drugs approved by the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Interestingly, approximately 41 percent of the approved medicines were targeting rare or orphan diseases. A few years ago the pharma industry paid very little attention to rare disease research. All this has changed thanks to our greater understanding of the genetic underpinnings of their causes.

As pharmaceutical companies grapple to understand the vast new world of opportunities available to them, systematically scouring to be the first to find the next big thing, there is a new solution from Thomson Reuters Professional Services at the intersect of traditional content sets including publications, patents and deals. There is a growing trend for services that identify the hottest research networks, compare the high value emerging technology platforms and benchmark the most appropriate early stage asset deal structures. It will be fascinating to see how this ‘innovation-sourcing’ evolution plays out.

Peter Winter is an editor for Thomson Reuters BioWorld. BioWorld’s managing editor, Jennifer Boggs, also contributed to this story.

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