Discussion

Increasingly, partnerships between the different research sectors are seen as a means of managing the large investment required to make the early drug discovery process efficient. Over the last 12 years, Astex has established a successful track record of working with leading academic and clinical research institutions on collaborative projects leading to the discovery of multiple investigational new drugs against novel targets. Our experience has identified a number of factors that are essential to ensuring the success of these alliances. The importance of these partnerships to the discovery of two agents currently being explored in clinical trials will be described.