Children’s Tumor Foundation Research & Development VP Salvo La Rosa was interviewed by Outsourcing-Pharma.com on how disease-focused foundations and contract research organizations (CROs) are working together to bridge the gap between drug discovery and development, a topic that will be addressed at BIO2017, the global event for biotechnology, this week.
How CROs and foundations are partnering to advance drug discovery and development
By Melissa Fassbender
How are disease-focused foundations bridging the funding gap between new targets being discovered and getting them into clinical trials?
SLR: Today disease-focused foundations present the opportunity to develop new models where they can play a niche role in their respective rare disease ecosystem. The Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) has developed a business model, which is based on two principles: Firstly, rare disease foundations occupy a unique intersection that includes patients, researchers, clinicians and pharma. Secondly, rare disease foundations can act as targeted investors, directing funding towards integrated platforms of critical R&D endeavours. These include things such as creating a disease registry for patient recruitment, a biobank to guarantee tissue availability, and an open data hub to share data and disseminate results.
Has this role evolved over the last few years to become more significant, and why?
SLR: Giving for a ‘good’ cause is not enough anymore, as the goal for donors has become not only to invest in something they are interested in, but to also impact the field in a tangible way. In order to demonstrate the impact donors are looking for, the overall foundation landscape has drastically changed. Medical foundations have become increasingly innovative in participating in the R&D process, helping to get the right drug candidates through the clinic and to the market.
Click here to keep reading the interview on Outsourcing-Pharma.com.
