Ten pharmas collaborate with US government on therapeutic targets

Ten biopharmaceutical companies are pooling resources with the US national medical research agency to identify and validate promising biological targets.

The US National Institutes of Health, part of the Department of Health and Human Sciences, will work with non-profit organisations and the following pharmas: AbbVie, Biogen Idec, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Merck & Co, Pfizer, Sanofi and Takeda.

"Currently, we are investing a great deal of money and time in avenues with high failure rates, while patients and their families wait. All sectors of the biomedical enterprise agree that new approaches are sorely needed.

"The good news is that recent dramatic advances in basic research are opening new windows of opportunity for therapeutics.

"But this challenge is beyond the scope of any one of us and it's time to work together in new ways to increase our collective odds of success.

"We believe this partnership is an important first step and represents the most sweeping effort to date to tackle this vital issue."

Francis Collins, director, US National Institutes of Health.