Reaping
the Full Benefits of Collaborations
As
collaborations increase, good management practices make
sure they pay off.
Collaborating with outside
researchers has one benefit no one overlooks—free data.
Outside academic investigators (who are almost never paid)
give your company access to a range of experimental models
that limited research budgets can never match internally.
On the face of it, collaborating should be a snap.
Collaborators sign Material Transfer Agreements, you ship
the reagents, they do the experiments, you get the data.
What’s complicated about that?
The complications set in as collaborations increase. Even a
small company may have five or ten collaborations. Immunex,
my former company, had about 900 active collaborations at
the time it was bought by Amgen. At Immunex it was not
unusual, for example, to have 20 or more collaborations in
order to test one molecule in a wide variety of cancer
models.
Simply because they become so numerous, collaborations
inevitably must be managed in order to reap maximum
benefits from free data. Collaborators have to be contacted
regularly. The quality of their data must be assured. The
data must be quickly delivered to those in the company who
need it, examined for patent opportunities, and stored for
easy retrieval. Straightforward as that sounds, without a
system for managing collaborations, it may be more than
your scientists can effectively accomplish as they are
stretched thin between research responsibilities and
mounting requirements for collaboration oversight.
The Other
Benefits
Of
course, the benefits of free data really depend on how it
is used. It is worth recalling ways in which collaborations
make companies more successful.
Collaborations
Can Speed Development Decisions. The faster you learn about
your molecules, the easier it is to decide which ones to
take into clinical trials and manufacturing. Patents on
your molecules have a limited lifetime, so rapid decisions
on clinical utility have a clear economic benefit. Good
collaborations accelerate the acquisition of key data, so
decisions come sooner and time-to-market shrinks.
Collaborations
May Reveal New Indications. The diversity of
experimental models available through collaborations
enhances the probability of discovering new molecular
functions, or conversely, revealing potential development,
dosage, or safety problems. Broader understanding of a
molecule’s biology brings better understanding of
development options. But one of the greatest benefits is
that collaborations outside your area of biological
expertise may reveal new indications. With clinical trial
success so difficult to achieve, having a second or third
indication tremendously increases chances of eventual
regulatory approval. Witness Enbrel, which failed in
Immunex’s clinical trials for sepsis. Rheumatoid arthritis,
which made Enbrel a multi-billion-dollar drug, was
originally only an alternate indication verified with help
from collaborators.
Collaborations
Can Increase Intellectual Property. Collaborations may
frequently contribute to your research group’s patent
filings. Effective collaboration management identifies
discoveries made by your research partners and notifies
patent attorneys before patentability is lost by public
disclosure.
Publishing
With Collaborators Enhances Your Scientific
Reputation. Manuscripts published with
collaborators demonstrate your scientific leadership and
heighten awareness of your pipeline molecules progressing
through development. Venture capitalists and investment
bankers highly regard publications as evidence of
scientific credibility.
Collaborations
Can Attract Scientific Talent. Ambitious young scientists
always try to attach themselves to scientific leaders.
Publications with collaborators and talks your staff are
invited to give at meetings will raise your scientific
profile and make recruiting top-notch talent easier. In
addition, your collaborators will often recommend your
company to their younger colleagues searching for
positions.
Collaborations
Can Build Relationships That Speed Clinical
Progress. Collaborations with
thought leaders establish relationships that often lead to
clinical studies conducted by these same experts. Progress
from pre-clinical to clinical research accelerates through
the influence of their reputations, their greater
resources, and the quality of their work. Moreover, the
need to educate different investigators about your molecule
decreases. A strong collaboration program can establish
relationships with investigators and institutions
worldwide.
Multiple
Collaborations Help When Time Is Critical.
When it is
essential to obtain data without delay, it may be advisable
to have multiple collaborations involving similar but
qualitatively different experimental models. Many companies
hesitate to set up such collaborations, for there is a
danger of losing collaborators’ goodwill when they in
effect compete to deliver data. But when the need is
critical, multiple collaborations can be established in an
ethical manner. The key is honesty about what you are doing
and why. Treat your collaborators with respect and they
will understand.
Collaborations
Attract New Opportunities. As a leader in your field,
outside investigators may approach your company about
helping them in new projects. It is not only your
scientific reputation that attracts them, however. Very
likely they checked with some of your collaborators and
heard you have a reputation for fairness.
Summary.
There are
compelling benefits for extending research capabilities
through collaborations. But dozens of questions large and
small arise as collaborations increase. What is the best
way to disseminate the data? What is the best way to store
it? Who has the authority to launch collaborations? How
should we handle collaborations that are unproductive? What
if a collaborator violates our agreement? Effective answers
exist for these questions and are the basis for good
collaboration management.
Putting in place efficient
practices to keep the benefits of collaborations from
slipping away is affordable for every company, even small
ones. It is the simplest way to make sure the right people
see the data at the right time, so that drug development
decisions on which success depends can be the very best.
For
further information on enhancing your company’s
collaboration practices, please contact me using using the
telephone number or e-mail address on the
“CONTACT ME” page.
