4 DRUG DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT


Dynamic pharma partnering for future mutual benefits


Changing market dynamics are forcing pharma companies to adopt more collaborative approaches. As Adam Sherlock shows, the result is a new wave of partnerships that go beyond just R&D.


Des dynamiques de marché en évolution forcent les sociétés pharmaceutiques à adopter des approches plus collaboratives. Comme le montre Adam Sherlock, il en résulte une nouvelle vague de partenariats qui ne se limite pas à la R-D.


Aufgrund veränderlicher Marktdynamik sind Pharmaunternehmen gezwungen, auf Kooperationskonzepte zu setzen. Wie Adam Sherlock erläutert, ist das Resultat eine neue Welle partnerschaftlicher Kooperationen über die Forschung und Entwicklung hinaus.


A


sea change is taking place in they way big pharma approaches its external


relationships – from those that help fuel the pipeline to vendor partners who are helping manage certain enterprise functions.


Companies are undergoing a strategic rethink as they consider how best to access innovation, initiate process change to better prepare the business for existing and future market and regulatory changes, and ultimately improve productivity and efficiency. And their orientation for the relationship is changing as a result with an eye toward the long-term and an emphasis on the concept of partnership.


Te concept of partnership and its myriad forms was a major theme throughout ISI’s 7th annual eSolutions conference held in Barcelona last year.


From partnerships to accelerate innovation in the lab to alliances that help manage the complexities of operating in a global market, industry thought leaders helped to demonstrate that pharma is most effective when all the cogs – internal and external – are working seamlessly together.


Te pharma industry has experienced a convergence of factors forcing it to rethink the way it does business. Tese include heightened competition, shrinking pipelines in the wake of an innovation gap combined with patent expirations, the complexities brought about by M&A integration, globalisation, and a vastly altered regulatory environment.


On the R&D front, as hungry pharmaceutical companies have sought to satiate their need for richer pipelines the obvious target has been biotech.


Equally, industry has turned to other sources – contract research organisations (CROs), software vendors, business and process consultants – to get a better grip on an increasingly complex and competitive market.


While doing deals with biotech companies and outsourcing several strategic, albeit non-core capabilities, it is only more recently that changing market dynamics have forced pharma companies to adopt a more collaborative approach. Te result is a new wave of partnerships at both the R&D level and in other key functions within the enterprise.


R&D deals Not that long ago, pharma had the upper hand when it came to biotech deals. Large companies could pick and choose the products or companies that they were interested in and cement deals that often resulted in one-off payments for the biotech company and majority or even full product ownership and intellectual property (IP) transfer to the acquiring company.


As competition for biotech’s R&D has intensified, biotech companies of all sizes and stages of development have become better positioned to negotiate the terms and conditions of deals.


There is a growing global effort to standardise regulations, with more and more regulatory bodies pushing towards eCTD adoption.


Pharma, meanwhile, has begun to reconsider its own operations, recognising that isolated practices are failing to deliver results, and that partnering with agile, young companies and academic institutions provides diverse opportunities for novel product development. Furthermore, though the rewards may be shared and therefore not as substantial as a go-it-alone strategy, the risks are also spread.


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