New global alliance aims to accelerate academic drug discovery

Hannah Blake

pharmaphorum

Six of the world’s top translational health research centres have announced a global alliance to strengthen the international academic and not-for-profit drug development. The ultimate aim of the alliance, which together forms the new Global Alliance of Leading Drug Discovery and Development Centres, is to improve the rate of bringing new medicines to market.

The six founding organisations are:

The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), Canada

Lead Discovery Center (LDC), Germany

The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Florida, United States

The Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3), KU Leuven R&amp,D, Belgium

Medical Research Council Technology, United Kingdom

Cancer Research Technology, United Kingdom

Together, these organisations represent nearly 400 experienced drug developers, who will collaborate with tens of thousands of academic scientists around the globe on over 165 highly innovative therapeutic projects targeting significant unmet medical needs.

"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. This Alliance will be a powerful vehicle in bringing such organizations together, leveraging one another's strengths, and ultimately making for a much more effective global translational research environment."

Karimah Es Sabar, President and CEO of CDRD.

Through this Alliance, member organisations will collaborate on mutually-beneficial projects, as well as share best practices, expertise and resources, and also develop common standards and performance measurements.

The overall aim is to work together to improve the conversion of global early-stage technology into much needed therapies.

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