Prospective partnerships for industry and academia
Emily Gale
Medical Research Council
21 November 2013
MRC mission
• Encourage and support high-quality
research with the aim of improving human
health.
• Produce skilled researchers.
• Advance and disseminate knowledge and
technology to improve the quality of life
and economic competitiveness in the UK
and worldwide.
• Promote dialogue with the public about
medical research.
Post-Comprehensive Spending Review
• Encourage and support high-quality research
with the aim of improving human health.
• Produce skilled researchers.
• Advance and disseminate knowledge and
technology to improve the quality of life and
economic competitiveness in the UK and worldwide.
• Promote dialogue with the public about
medical research.
• Work with industry to drive economic
development
MRC discoveries and developments
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•
•
•
•
Rickets caused by lack of vitamin D (1916)
Discovery and development of penicillin (1940s)
Pioneered randomised controlled trial design (1940s)
Discovery of link between smoking and cancer (1950s)
Clinical trials for radiotherapy for cancer (1960s)
Clinical trials of chemotherapy for leukaemia (1970s)
Invention of DNA fingerprinting (1980s)
Gene for Huntington’s disease discovered (1990s)
Humanised therapeutic antibodies in widespread use (2000s)
MRC investment in research, 2012/13
MRC research expenditure - £766.9 million in 12/13
• £343.1m for more than 400 programmes in MRC research
units and institutes.
• £334.6m on 1,400 grants to researchers in universities,
medical schools and research institutes.
• £71.3m on training and career development.
• £54.2m on individual grants with industry partners
• £29.5m on industry/academic consortia
MRC resources available to researchers from
industry and academia
• MRC research underpins R&D
– Patient Research Cohorts Initiative
– UK Biobank
– UK Brain Bank Network
– WT/MRC Stem Cell Centre
– Developing animal models
– FARR Institute
– Clinical trials and methodology resources
• MRC engagement directly with industry
Current focuses of MRC activity
Discovery and exploratory research
Application and delivery research
MRC lead
Genetics/genomics
Pharmacogenomics
Structural biology
Animal/human models
Imaging
Systems medicine
Global health
Ageing: life course
Stem cells
Regenerative medicine
NIHR lead
Programmes in
Experimental
medicine
HTA Trials
Applied research
Methodology
Global health
Stratified medicine
EME Trials
(Late stage III)
Research for Patient Benefit
Invention for Innovation
Infections
Population science
Public health
Service Delivery and
Organisation
E-health
CSO (Scotland)
WORD (Wales)
HSCNI (Northern Ireland)
Where industry and MRC academics meet
• 92 new products and interventions launched onto the market.
• Creation or growth of 104 companies, 56 formed since 2006.
• 578 patents granted or published since 2006, with around 30%
licensed.
• More than 100 new industry collaborations are reported every
year outside of the MRC-mediated collaborations.
• Cross-sector MRC funded partnerships
Types of products and interventions
generated by MRC-supported scientists
MICA – a gateway to funding
• Encouraging and supporting collaborative research projects
between academic and industry researchers.
• Key feature: Flexibility
– Level and nature of industry contribution can vary
– Companies of any size can participate
– Applies to all MRC funding and fellowship schemes
• Agreement between partners forms part of application.
• >80 awards so far, including collaboration involving:
– 38 different HEI
– 50 different industry partners
MICA: “More than
just money”
• MenBioVax: meningitis vaccine developed by
ImmBio with TSB funding following a collaborative
programme with Bristol Medical School
• MRC DPFS funding to take MenBioVax through
preclinical studies
“There aren’t many other sources of funding for
this type of project in the UK. It brings more
than just money, of course. It’s important for
potential investors to be able to see that bodies
like the MRC have confidence in our technology
and products.”
Graham Clarke, ImmBio CEO
MICA: “A very positive
experience”
• Evaluation of a potential biomarker for
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
• Collaboration between scientists at University of
Nottingham, GlaxoSmithKline and Queen Mary,
University of London
• “We all believe in the target but each of us has only
one piece of the jigsaw.”
“MICA is a tremendous initiative that will
accelerate the development of new drugs to
meet clinical needs.”
Dr Andy Blanchard
Director of External Discovery, GSK
MICA numbers on the rise
MRC working with industry
• MRC engages directly with industry
– DSTT
– MRC/ABPI Inflammation and Immunology Initiative
– Stratified Medicines Innovation Platform
• MRC promotes partnerships and translational science
– MRC/AZ Mechanisms of disease
– Confidence in Concept
– DPFS/DCS
– BMC – Biomedical Catalyst
– Bioinformatics call
– Experimental Medicine Challenge Grants
• PPP in Europe
Inflammation and Immunology Initiative
A new way of funding from the MRC
• Collaboration with ABPI:
 Disease-focused workshops
• COPD
• Rheumatoid arthritis
 Brought together experts from academia and industry
 Identified research priorities
 Ear-marked funds for research consortiums to address
barriers and exploit opportunities
 MRC invested £9.5m over four years
Stratified Medicine Consortia
Disease-focused cross-sector consortia
• Pitzalis
• Gaucher’s disease
• Hepatitis C
• Psoriasis
• Schizophrenia
• Primary Biliary Cirrosis
 MRC invested £50m over four years
 Exploiting existing expertise and clinical research infrastructure
Aim to provide a dynamic platform for disease focused research
RA Partners
MRC working with industry
• MRC engages directly with industry
– DSTT
– MRC/ABPI Inflammation and Immunology Initiative
– Stratified Medicines Innovation Platform
• MRC promotes partnerships and translational science
– MRC/AZ Mechanisms of disease
– Confidence in Concept
– DPFS/DCS
– BMC – Biomedical Catalyst
– Experimental Medicine Challenge Grants
• PPP in Europe
Products and interventions by pipeline stage
Initial
development
Refinement,
Non-clinical
Refinement,
Clinical
Early clinical
assessment
Late clinical
evaluation
Market
authorisation
Small-scale
adoption
Wide-scale
adoption
“Investable opportunities”
•
Over 600 projects developing new products
or interventions - at all stages of
development have been reported
•
110 have reached the market since 2006
•
For the first time we can track all of these,
noting which are active, closed, seeking
support, and which are progressing
•
75% of projects are prior to the “valley of
death”, 25% after
•
Around 80 would benefit from further
investment – so could be “investable
opportunities”
•
The first year in which we published this data
(2011) the three hundred development
projects were used by the science minister
as an example of the untapped potential that
the biomedical catalyst could unlock
“Valley of death”
General Objectives of IMI 2
 To provide European citizens with
timely access to new and effective
diagnostics and treatments that
improve their health and wellbeing
 Helping safeguard the future
international competitiveness of the
European biopharmaceutical industry
and secure growth and jobs.
Innovative Medicines Initiative:
Joining forces in the healthcare sector
The European Union and the
pharmaceutical industry
have joined forces to make
drug R&D processes in Europe more
innovative and efficient,
enhance Europe’s competitiveness
& address key societal challenges
by forming
the biggest PPP in Life Science
•22
COMBACTE CLIN-Network
280 members and Candidate members
22 million euros awarded to UK SMEs
1 in 4 UK SME applicants are successful in IMI
total SME participants per country
United Kingdom
Germany
France
Belgium
Netherlands
Iceland
Spain
Denmark
Finland
Hungary
Sweden
Italy
Austria
Ireland
Israel
Greece
Thinking about cross-sector collaboration
Bioinformatics
• Computer science
• Data management
Diagnostics
• Engineering
• Microscopy/scanning
• Clinical biology
Thank you for your attention
Emily Gale
emily.gale@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
Translation
• What is it? Turning discoveries into clinical benefits, while
maintaining the basic research that drives it.
Basic
medical
research
Prototype
discovery
and design
Pre-clinical
development
Early
clinical
trials
Late
clinical
trials
• The MRC’s translational strategy:
– builds on the MRC’s existing role in pushing forward basic
knowledge to improve people’s health and wealth
– strengthens the support and oversight of the translational
processes
Translation of basic research takes time
1973
Mouse antibodies isolated by César Milstein and George
Köhler (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology)
1986
Michael Neuberger and Sir Greg Winter ‘humanise’ mouse
antibodies
Sir Greg develops and patents technology for producing
antibodies in vitro
2003
MRC-developed Humira® licensed to treat UK arthritis patients
2008
21 monoclonal antibody drugs on market for treating breast
cancer, leukaemia, asthma, arthritis, psoriasis and transplant
rejection
2011
Antibodies make up 1/3 of new drugs for cancer, arthritis and
asthma; global antibody market estimated to be worth $40bn
MRC spend by research activity, 2010/11
MRC spend by health category, 2010/11