Discussion

We are experiencing an unprecedented explosion of scientific knowledge in life-sciences, with which therapeutic development is struggling to keep pace. Concurrently, pharmaceutical industry R&D is facing increasing costs and dwindling success rates. Against this back-drop, therefore, there has to be a step-change in the approach to the discovery and development of new medicines. Open innovation and partnership are becoming key, with industry – academia interaction central.

Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) is a unique global GlaxoSmithKline initiative that establishes integrated partnerships with academic groups to undertake early drug discovery and translate innovative research into medicines that benefit patients. DPAc was initiated just over four years ago, with the first collaborations in the UK before the initiative was expanded globally. Multiple projects are now up and running with academics in major European and North American institutions, bringing together the deep biology and disease knowledge of academia with the drug discovery expertise of GSK to research and develop new medicines. These partnerships are focused from start to finish on delivery of a specific project with a joint team working together towards agreed common goals.

This presentation will provide a perspective on the current drug discovery and development environment, and describe the GSK DPAc model, highlighting examples of collaborations, and discussing the potential as well as the challenges of working across the industry – academia interface.