Drugmakers and Academia Should Collaborate More, Scientist Says (Wall Street Journal)

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Marc Feldmann and Ravinder Maini, scientists from the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at Imperial College London have won the second Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. The pair was honored by J&J for work that paved the way for drugs called TNF inhibitors, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, and that eventually led to the class of blockbuster drugs that includes Remicade from J&J, Enbrel from Amgen and Humira from Abbott. From the podium at the New York Academy of Sciences, Feldmann made the case for closer collaboration between the drug industry and academia. Science, he said, is meant to be original and novel, while medicine is conservative and needs to be safe. The melding of the two is necessary for medical progress, but the process for doing so is “ill-defined” and “difficult.” More efficient academic-industry interactions, he argued, would help increase the success rate for translating lab work into real-life medicine. Feldman said scientists understand the course of disease and how to make the most of innovative clinical trial methods, while companies understand products, regulatory requirements and marketing. The knowledge and skills are complementary, he said, and can “augment success” for development of new therapies.