Real World Evidence Evidence & Data Partnerships

Oct 14, 2014 - Oct 15, 2014, Bethesda

This year real patient data will change healthcare.

Big Pharma Outsources Innovation

As the pharmaceutical industry continues its never-ending quest to discover new medicines, licensing agreements with smaller market players are becoming more popular than ever.



Strengthening the pharmaceutical pipeline has always been vital for large drug manufacturers but as blockbuster patents near expiration and internal R&D figures come up short, Big Pharma must seek external assistance in order to retain and expand their brand name in the competitive market.

Smaller biopharmaceutical firms thus represent a valuable source of new compounds at this critical time and the large pharma partners, for their part, can provide valuable resources and commercial expertise and presence required to bring promising products to market when access to capital is proving difficult.

Beneficial partnerships

According to PwC’s Canadian Life Science Industry Forecast for 2013, almost 80 per cent (a 50 per cent jump from 2007 figures) of small life sciences companies wish to partner with large pharmaceutical companies for funding.

While Big Pharma is under increased pressure to innovate and turning to budding drug makers for answers, financial experts say this approach is welcomed by the smaller firms as pharmaceutical companies are taking the place of institutional investors who have lost interest in the life-sciences industry over the last decade.

A dearth of breakthrough products in the sector has seen investment, and corresponding government funding dry up for the small innovators. However for any product to succeed and travel to market, large amounts of capital for extensive research and testing are nonetheless required.  These correlating factors have served to boost the potential for strategic unions and have also encouraged the rise of “early stage” partnerships. Partnering with venture capital firms allows Big Pharma to mitigate risk and expand the number of potential drugs they can consider.

Embryonic investment

Historically, large pharmaceutical firms have outsourced the development aspect of R&D, reserving the research part internally as it was the proprietary domain of the company.  But while discovering and inventing new drugs has long been the core competency of Big Pharma, innovation is now happening at a faster pace in smaller and more flexible firms. Even though such research agreements could put new products in the hands of competitors, the pharmaceutical industry is realising that creating this revolutionary ecosystem will benefit all market players and payers alike.

US global giant Eli Lilly is one of many firms that have traditionally invested in small biotech and life sciences companies over the years.  But it has also developed a new investment model in the last year using a subsidiary called Chorus, which works with venture partners to identify potential drugs that are in very early stages of research at universities and in start-ups. On identification of such a drug, dependent on funding, the company is assisted in creating a plan to take the product through human testing to market-ready. Because Chorus operates independently, “It’s a much more nimble and agile group”, according to Jennifer Laird, Eli Lilly’s director of global external research and development, “the mind-set is very entrepreneurial.”

As Big Pharma continues to externalize its early stage R&D, it has not only expressed desire in identifying and potentially partnering around innovative early stage assets, but it wishes to get even closer to venture creation. The industry has shown heightened interest in helping build new biotech start-ups that may eventually help fill its pipeline.

Both Roche and Bayer have recently announced that they intend to work with start-up accelerator California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) to help identify, fund, and support early stage life science companies in the San Francisco Bay area. In these agreement, start-ups will be evaluated and supported by the pharma giants, and will be able to draw from their “mentors’” experience as they advance therapeutic candidates and identify risks.



Real World Evidence Evidence & Data Partnerships

Oct 14, 2014 - Oct 15, 2014, Bethesda

This year real patient data will change healthcare.