Top drugmakers set up non-profit TransCelerate to speed pharma R&D

Some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies have formed a non-profit organization to accelerate the development of new medicines. Abbott Labs, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Genentech (a member of the Roche Group) and Sanofi have launched TransCelerate BioPharma, the largest ever initiative of its kind, to identify and solve common drug development challenges with the end goals of improving the quality of clinical studies and bringing new medicines to patients faster.

Through participation in TransCelerate, each of the 10 founding companies will combine financial and other resources, including personnel, to solve industry-wide challenges in a collaborative environment. No figures on funding having been revealed. Together, member companies have agreed to specific outcome-oriented objectives and established guidelines for sharing meaningful information and expertise to advance collaboration.

The collaborative effort comes against a background of declining research productivity and generic competition across the industry and in the face of rising R&D costs. According to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), including all the compounds that have fallen by the way side, the cost of bringing a new drug to market has gone up from around $140 million in the 1970s to more than $1.2 billion at present.