Academia-industry partnerships in drug discovery

The movement of ideas and innovation from academia into the world of business has a long and fruitful history. Ironically, it might be argued that the recent pressure put on universities and basic research organisations to protect and exploit their intellectual property has, in many ways, created a less conducive environment to successful commercialisation than existed 30 years ago. This movement has been concurrent with the drift of the pharmaceutical industry towards a more risk-averse R&D strategy in which it has increasingly concentrated its resources on a reductionist drug discovery process and later stage clinical development. In effect, these two strategies have created a discontinuity between academic scientific output and industry at a time when academia as a source of innovation is perhaps more important to industry than ever.