Identifying new opportunities for collaboration: recent MRC funding initiatives
Building on the successes of the earlier MRC/Industry Showcases, and as part of identifying new areas of collaboration, the MRC has held a series of disease-focused workshops, bringing together people from a range of disciplines across industry and academia. The disease areas were chosen in consultation with the pharmaceutical industry as being areas of significant health need and areas of matching expertise in both the industry and academic sectors.
MRC/AstraZeneca – Mechanisms of Disease Initiative
The MRC are investing £10M in a unique open innovation collaboration with AstraZeneca. This partnership provides academic researchers with unprecedented access to a high quality collection of clinical and pre-clinical AstraZeneca compounds. These compounds can be used to support studies to investigate human mechanisms of disease and the development of potential therapeutic interventions.
Academic researchers are invited to submit proposals under this initiative which will support two principal types of study:
(1) Pre-clinical studies to enable and inform further clinical insight to disease. Applicants must demonstrate clear “line of sight” to clinical benefit and enable investigation of mechanisms of human disease. For example, providing in vitro or in vivo evidence that a specific pathway is involved in disease pathology; validating models of human disease; informing patient selection hypotheses; etc.
Or
(2) Clinical research studies, using compounds in new disease areas, which build upon evidence that the specific pathway plays a role in disease pathology.
A two-stage process will be used to identify projects that are feasible, do not duplicate existing studies and do not directly contribute to AstraZeneca development programmes. The rights to intellectual property (IP) generated using the compounds will vary from project to project but will be equitable and similar to those currently used in academically-led research. AstraZeneca will retain rights over the chemical composition of the compounds, which have taken millions of pounds to develop so far, and any new research findings will be owned by the academic institution.
Further information on the Mechanisms of Disease initiative can be found here.
MRC/ABPI Inflammation and Immunology (I&I) Initiative
The MRC and ABPI co-hosted two disease-focused workshops in April and May 2010 to promote focused priority setting in inflammatory disease research between academic researchers and the pharmaceutical industry. The workshops brought together a range of experts with an interest in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory joint diseases in order to identify challenges, barriers and opportunities for collaboration.
Both workshops resulted in the development of research consortiums involving both academia and industry that aim to consolidate existing cohorts as well as undertaking hypothesis-driven mechanistic research on human tissue to identify potential targets. The groups in each consortium will share tissues and data to build a holistic view of disease progression, stratify patient groups, and identify potential biomarkers and targets. The full report from the workshop can be downloaded here.
The MRC has now invested £6 million in the COPD consortia and £3.5m in rheumatoid arthritis consortia over a four-year period. Both consortiums are intended to be dynamic and responsive, so if you feel you could contribute, please contact Desmond Walsh at desmond.walsh@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk.
Obesity, diabetes and related metabolic disorders workshop
A similar approach was used by MRC to foster collaboration in research into obesity, diabetes and related metabolic disorders. A workshop was held in March 2011, with the aim to identify challenges, barriers and tractable questions that collaborative research would solve. A range of experts from academia, pharma, biotech, and healthcare attended. The full report from the workshop can be downloaded here and the outcomes will be reported here in due course.
Experimental Medicines for Mental Health workshop
As part of the MRC’s strategy to implement key recommendations of the Review of Mental Health, MRC held a workshop on 18th March 2011 that brought together stakeholders with an interest in experimental medicine in mental health (EMMH). The overall purpose of the meeting was to scope opportunities in this area and deliver a report to MRC which would inform the implementation of its mental health research strategy. Accepting that there was a lot of work to do and that some cultural issues had to be overcome, exploiting collaboration with industry, together with innovative methodology and stratification approaches driven by the academic sector, was considered a real opportunity that ought to be taken. The outcomes of the workshop will be reported on the Mental Health Research page in due course.
Dementia round table
As part of a consultation process for the Ministerial Advisory Group on Dementia Research (MAGDR), the MRC co-hosted, with ABPI and Janssen-Cilag Pharmaceuticals a dementia round table discussion bringing together academia and industry to address the issues faced by dementia researchers. Recommendations made to MAGDR can be found here and more information on MAGDR can be found at Department of Health’s website.
MRC welcomes suggestions from commercial companies on new research areas for potential cross-sector partnerships – please email us on industry@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk to discuss more.