Recent Trends in Collaborative, Open Source Drug Discovery

Abstract

The pharmaceutical sector has traditionally played a predominant role in screening compounds against a molecular target and optimizing chemistry to develop drugs. The basic research studies in the academic sector have provided the pharmaceutical companies with many biological targets with potential impact on therapeutics. These well- defined contributions of the pharmaceutical and academic sectors in drug discovery field are being redefined to meet the fiscal and innovation challenges in the current drug discovery landscape. There is an increased capital and personnel investment in academia in the areas of highthroughput screening and technology transfer. The pharma has adopted an open innovation paradigm which seeks to complement internal intellect with external global talent and expertise, with the overall goal of expediting complex data interpretation and introduction of more effective and safe drugs. The pharma- academia sectors are collaborating on several mutually beneficial alliances and the changing landscape at pharma- academiainterface necessitates an urgent need for a better understanding of the role of academia in translational research and suitable technology transfer terms to sustain collaborative opportunities.The collaborative partnership between pharma and academia is expected to provide the required boost to identify novel targets and develop new and effective drugs.