Tufts CSDD says pharma collaborations to reduce development risk increasing

As pharmaceutical and biotech companies look to speed development, lower cost and reduce technical risks associated with new drug development, they are increasing the number and types of collaborative relationships they are forming with other developers, as well as with service providers and other stakeholders, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

R&D leaders from the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, who recently participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by Tufts CSDD, said that well-structured collaborative agreements, in which the parties agree to share risks and rewards, can increase the possibility that a new medicine, which otherwise might not get to market, wins regulatory approval - and at lower cost.

"The significance of these relationships involving drug sponsors, developers, and external service providers is that they become stakeholders in each other's business-not just customers and vendors-who stand to gain, or lose, together," said Tufts CSDD director Kenneth Kaitin.