Accelerating target discovery using pre-competitive open science- patients need faster innovation more than anyone else

Abstract

We are experiencing a new era enabled by unencumbered access to high quality data through the emergence of open science initiatives in the historically challenging area of early stage drug discovery. At the same time, many patient-centric organisations are taking matters into their own hands by participating in, enabling and funding research. Here we present the rationale behind the innovative partnership between the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC)-an open, pre-competitive pre-clinical research consortium and the research-focused patient organisation Myeloma UK to create a new, comprehensive platform to accelerate the discovery and development of new treatments for multiple myeloma. For anyone involved in biomedicine, especially in oncology, it seems like every other day we hear reports in the media about a new wonder drug or a potential cure. What is more, when scientists and clinicians attend conferences and read research journals, there is a seemingly endless amount of data being presented on the results of research, but still progress towards finding cures seems painfully slow. Why is this? One reason could be that the research or trials being done are on the same tired handful of targets and mechanisms. Of course, on every scientist and clinician's quest to develop faster, better treatments, the most common approach is to tread a familiar route and work on previously validated targets and mechanisms [1]. However in recent years, this has evolved to be almost the only path followed by scientists, academic and industrial alike. This is mainly as a consequence of the constantly increasing pressure from investors and funders (public and private) to deliver 'return on investment' as quickly as possible [2].