CDRD spearheads creation of global alliance of drug commercialization organizations

Six agencies from five countries

The Vancouver-based Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) has spearheaded the creation of a unique international alliance of organizations with mandates to accelerate the movement of promising drug discoveries into the marketplace. The Global Alliance of Leading Drug Discovery and Development Centres is poised to take advantage of shifts in the drug development landscape by pooling resources, eliminating redundancy and sharing best practices.

The alliance was initiated by Dr Karimah Es Sabar, CDRD's recently appointed president and CEO and its former VP external relations. Working with the Canadian High Commission, Es Sabar identified a handful of other fully integrated, similarly focused organizations and pitched an alliance that would facilitate collaboration.

One joint initiative has already been launched although it's too early to be publicly divulged.

"We are task-driven and outcomes-focused and the number one reason for creating the alliance is to move assets further down the pipeline in a more accelerated way," says Es Sabar. "Collaboration could be bi-lateral, tri-lateral or all six centres. We've identified areas where we can come together to pool resources, share large platform technologies and even apply for global grants."

massive pooling of research talent

Together, the six centres represent nearly 400 drug developers working with tens of thousands of academic scientists on more than 165 projects targeting "significant unmet medical needs". Together they have entered into alliances with a majority of the world's biggest biopharmaceutical companies, enhancing the potential for discoveries reaching the marketplace.

"There are six partners in the alliance and they vary enormously in size and each has a different funding model. CDRD is quite new and our funding is relatively diversified (and) we leverage 10 times as many people through our network and affiliations," says Es Sabar. "For me it made sense. Drug development is such a long-term cycle costing as much as $1 billion or more to get to market. This helps to optimize resources. Since we announced the alliance we've been inundated with inquiries and suggestions for participation."

The environment for drug development has changed dramatically in recent years, with waves of consolidation and R&D outsourcing resulting in the closure of R&D facilities around the globe. Canada has not been immune from the downside of these global trends, and Quebec has been particularly hard hit with the shuttering of R&D labs by several of the major drug firms.

"There's been pharma failure in early-stage development because there's so much duplication. The same projects are being developed in the same three or four companies and as a result only one in 10 projects can be replicated within the same company. In Quebec big pharma R&D centres are being disbanded," says Es Sabar. "They didn't work together but we can. We're not married to any one project or institution. We can be objective and move forward on the best projects."

strategy for sustainability

The majority of the centres within the alliance receive their lion's share of funding from their respective federal governments, but CDRD is an exception. The federal government accounts for just one third of its funding, with the other two thirds coming from the province of British Columbia and industry.

To ensure sustainability, CDRD established CDRD?Ventures Inc, a for-profit subsidiary with a mandate to generate revenue stemming from CDRD's commercialization activities. Its role will become even more critical in the future as federal funding — through the Networks of Centres of Excellence's Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program — is reduced.

For the first five years, CDRD received $15 million, but in the recent competition for extended funding, that amount was cut to $8 million (see page 7).

The alliance also offers opportunities for funding. Es Sabar says the alliance will pursue "major funding around a bundle of projects".

"We're preparing a proposal. None of us want to waste funding, resources and manpower. We've already identified areas of duplication so we can tailor our resources," she says. "The goal is not volume but quality and outcomes."

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