Open innovation in early drug discovery: roadmaps and roadblocks

• Published in: Drug discovery today 2016-05, Vol.21 (5), p.779-788
• Main Authors: Reichman, Melvin, Simpson, Peter B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical Research; Drug Discovery; Drug Industry; Humans; Inventions; National Institutes of Health (U.S.); Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases; United States
• ISSN: 1359-6446; 1878-5832
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2015.12.008

•Open innovation was born from a triple helix of paradigm shifts.•The zeitgeist for open innovation is now at a crucial inflection point.•The sensitivity of proprietary structure activity data remains a roadblock.•General schemata are summarized for a protected open innovation (POI) model.•The POI model is consistent with the academic and industrial missions.•POI is a path to achieving the ‘FIPNet’ model for transforming pharmaceutical R&D. Open innovation in pharmaceutical R&D evolved from a triple helix of convergent paradigm shifts in academic, industrial and government research sectors. The birth of the biotechnology sector catalyzed shifts in location dynamics that led to the first wave of open innovation in pharmaceutical R&D between big pharma and startup companies. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap was a crucial inflection point that set the stage for a new wave of open innovation models between pharmaceutical companies and universities that have the potential to transform the pharmaceutical R&D landscape. We highlight the attributes of leading protected open innovation models that foster the sharing of proprietary small molecule collections by lowering the risk of premature escape of intellectual property, particularly structure–activity data. Game-changing, public–private partnering models in pharmaceutical R&D are discussed from a historical and forward-looking perspective, highlighting crucial inflection points that caused transformative changes in academic, government and industrial R&D sectors.