Abstract

Professional Translational Research: New Paradigm in Early Drug Discovery That Works

Peter Nussbaumer, Managing Director, Lead Discovery Center GmbH

Early drug discovery (eDD) is within a structural change with a strong trend of industry leaving and academia entering this field. Paradoxically, industry pipelines are shrinking while many academic results are never professionally assessed for their application potential. In my opinion, academia should not be industrialized and industry should not compete with academia in basic research. Instead, the strengths of both worlds should be brought together to leverage the high innovation potential of academia by using the robustness and efficiency of industry appropriately for creating new, innovative therapies for patients. Successful direct collaborations would need a substantial cultural change to overcome the differences of the two worlds in language, attitudes, and incentives – very unrealistic on short time scale and broad scope. A new paradigm that really works with proven track record is the involvement of a professional translational research center (TRC), such as the Lead Discovery Center GmbH in Dortmund, as a facilitator and translator between academia and industry. Essential requirements for success are 1) close collaboration with the academic PIs, 2) fully integrated, professional in-house drug discovery expertise, 3) high quality standards, 4) open-mindedness and mediator qualities, and 5) collaboration with industry instead of competition.