Seeding Open Innovation Drug Discovery and Translational Collaborations to Leverage Government Funding: A Case Study of Strategic Partnership between Sanford-Burnham and Mayo Clinic

The cost (well over $1 billion per compound) and duration (10-15 years) of traditional pharmaceutical research and development for drug discovery and development of a new drug as practiced by pharmaceutical companies ("big pharma") has come under increased scrutiny and assault from disease advocacy groups, government, and investment communities as being too high and long, stagnant, and unsustainable. These communities have all called for new innovative business models for drug discovery and development, in particular new models in which the participation of the best of academia is used to catalyze innovation and translational research. Indeed, several large initiatives and programs for "open innovation," such as the National Institutes of Health's "Roadmap" and Molecular Libraries Initiative/Program and, more recently, the formation of the National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences, are tangible responses to this deficit that has provided a promise for future funding of translational research. We describe in this chapter the critical components of infrastructure and drug discovery core competencies and capabilities that have allowed the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics (CPCCG) at the Sanford|Burnham Medical Research Institute to contribute in new models of academic drug discovery and development. We provide a case study of our strategic alliance and partnership with the Mayo Clinic detailing (1) how the two organizations selected each other, (2) the key cultural and operational governance models that drove strong alignment, and (3) how the Prebys Center acted as an effective partner to leverage NIH funds toward advancing a drug discovery initiative within this collaboration.