Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe February 2008 R&D: Innovation 11 Learning to Share Novartis’s Paul Herrling tells Pharmaceutical Executive’s executive editor Joanna Breitstein that collaboration is key to faster, cheaper, and better R&D — and not only for neglected diseases. onprofit and for-profit R&D need to take a good look at one another. What one has, the other lacks. Scientists searching for drugs for neglected diseases typically work in open, collaborative systems and share information, but they lack the resources to invest heavily in large-scale clinical trials. On the other hand, when profits are at stake and competition is fierce, Big Pharma researchers very often plug in to their well-financed vacuum — even though the answers may not be found there. Scientists from the two worlds of research have a lot to learn from one another. But this time, nonprofit R&D execs are leading the charge. They are showing Big Pharma how to collaborate for the greater good, starting with drug safety, and in the process, rewriting the rules for research and development everywhere. Mindful of this, Novartis, with Paul Herrling at its helm, is fighting to make all areas of R&D more efficient by advocating collaboration and communication. With Novartis, Herrling helped start the SNP Consortium, the first major collaboration between prominent research institutions and pharma companies. Throughout his career, he has been able to bring together important R&D players. When Sandoz Pharmaceuticals merged with Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis in 1996, he led the companies’ integration and developed a new research model that had car engineers working side by side with biologists. When we caught up with Herrling — who, in addition to his day job at Novartis, is a professor at the University of Basel, Switzerland — he gave us a lesson in R&D. Herrling explained how the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) is reaching out to other companies and utilising the newest technologies to research neglected diseases. Research institutions, pharmas, and agencies: pick up your pencils and start taking notes. N research in neglected diseases, and Novartis’s Singapore Institute is the most consistent. We’ve applied the most modern drug-discovery technology to find new drugs for diseases like TB and dengue. PE: What new techniques are you using in this area? PH: We only recently have the complete sequence of the genome of pathological organisms like TB and malaria. That means we can now apply all the tools of genomics to find characterised targets. Up until now, drugs for TB were found by throwing a compound at bug cultures to see which ones died, with no attention to targets or mechanism of action. The only questions were, Does it kill the bugs and does it have acceptable side effects? That’s much simpler than tweaking a subtle biological mechanism within the human body. It turns out, however, that TB is a highly sophisticated organism that has manoeuvred itself into a corner of evolution. Its speciality is to survive only in people, so it has evolved many mechanisms that allow it to do so. And one of the most perplexing and difficult — in terms of developing treatments — is that TB mycobacteria have learned, when they encounter negative conditions, to stop dividing and hide in the tissue. And they can stay there and then grow again after 50 years. Pharm Exec: Do you think neglected disease sets the standard in terms of efficiency? Or is it kind of behind the pack? Paul Herrling: If you are talking about neglected diseases in the developing world, like malaria and TB, then clearly we are on a major catch up. For example, the last tuberculosis drug that was put on the market was some 30 years ago. Of course, the reason nobody has worked in TB is that you can’t make any money — and drug companies are commercial organizations. We have to get a return on our research investment. Currently, there is only a handful of companies doing clinical
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 Contents From the Editor News and Analysis Brussels Report Calendar R&D: Innovation - Learning to Share Drug Launch - The Preparation Game Q&A - Getting a Head Start Regulatory Compliance - Credible Compliance Clinical Trials - Establishing Trials in China The Mix - Relevant ROI Comment - Taming the Trader Last Word - Under the Microscope Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Contents (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - From the Editor (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - From the Editor (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Brussels Report (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Brussels Report (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Calendar (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - R&D: Innovation - Learning to Share (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - R&D: Innovation - Learning to Share (Page 12) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - R&D: Innovation - Learning to Share (Page 13) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - R&D: Innovation - Learning to Share (Page 14) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - R&D: Innovation - Learning to Share (Page 15) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Drug Launch - The Preparation Game (Page 16) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Drug Launch - The Preparation Game (Page 17) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Drug Launch - The Preparation Game (Page 18) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Drug Launch - The Preparation Game (Page 19) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Q&A - Getting a Head Start (Page 20) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Q&A - Getting a Head Start (Page 21) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Regulatory Compliance - Credible Compliance (Page 22) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Regulatory Compliance - Credible Compliance (Page 23) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Clinical Trials - Establishing Trials in China (Page 24) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Clinical Trials - Establishing Trials in China (Page 25) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Clinical Trials - Establishing Trials in China (Page 26) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Clinical Trials - Establishing Trials in China (Page 27) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - The Mix - Relevant ROI (Page 28) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - The Mix - Relevant ROI (Page 29) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - The Mix - Relevant ROI (Page 30) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - The Mix - Relevant ROI (Page 31) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Comment - Taming the Trader (Page 32) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - February 2008 - Last Word - Under the Microscope (Page 33)
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