Six of the world’s leading centres in academic and not-for-profit research have come together in a bid to speed up the process by which academic research is translated into usable medicines.
The Global Alliance of Leading Drug Discovery and Development Centres comprises organisations from both Europe and North America, including Canada’s Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), the Scripps Research Institute of the US and Germany’s Lead Discovery Centre.
Belgium’s Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3), and the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Technology and Cancer Research Technology (CRT) complete the list of founding members, all of which have experience in advancing early research into drug candidates with proof-of-concept trials.
In total, nearly 400 individual drug developers are represented by the Alliance, with the number of current therapeutic projects standing at 165.
The group’s aim is to boost collaboration between member organisations on existing and future projects, including the sharing of best practice, expertise and resources.
It is hoped that all parties will agree a common set of standards and performance measurements, helping to achieve the Alliance’s goal of turning global early-stage technology into new therapies for patients.
Other specific objectives include increasing the number of both licensed patents and spin-out companies from academic sources and improving their viability.
There should also be more risk-sharing collaborations with the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, the Alliance said.
“We see a multitude of translational research initiatives around the world, but until now, these have for the most part, worked in isolation of one another,” said Karimah Es Sabar, president and CEO of Canada’s CDRD.
“This alliance will be a powerful vehicle in bringing such organisations together, leveraging one another’s strengths, and ultimately making for a much more effective global translational research environment.”