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Open Innovation and The Pharma Industry

Interesting article in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News on Open Innovation. Seems that the the cost of developing a new drug has escalated to an all-time high of $1.3 billion, the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development said in January. So Pharma companies are looking at ways they can reduce costs and speed time to market using Open Innovation.

One example is GlaxoSmithKline. GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) strategy, targeting diseases of the developing world. GSK launched its open innovation initiative early in 2010 by starting its first “Open Lab” based outside Madrid, Spain. Open Lab allows up to 60 scientists from around the globe to tap into GSK expertise while pursuing their own R&D in tropical diseases. GSK spent $8 million to seed-fund the research through a not-for-profit foundation. Another is Eli Lilly. Late last month Lilly said it will expand its open-source effort beyond its two-year-old Phenotypic Drug Discovery (PD2) initiative, in which molecules can be submitted by scientists in and outside the company for screening. The new target discovery program called TargetD2 will screen molecules designed to interact with specific genomic targets believed to be involved in disease pathogenesis.

When I attend Open Innovation forums like the Berkeley Innovation Forum, there are invariably a number of large Pharma companies represented. Seems like Open Innovation has really cauth the attention of what is traditionally a very conservative industry.