A collaborative effort with a global pharmaceutical company could mean big bucks for Penn.
The School of Medicine announced a new research agreement with AstraZeneca to find new therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease in order to “bridge the transition from drug discovery to development,” according to a Penn Med press release on March 18.
John Swartley, senior director of the Center for Technology Transfer, wrote in an e-mail that AstraZeneca will pay the “multi-year costs of the collaborative drug discovery partnership, and may pay additional fees and running royalties to Penn based on successful product development milestones and sales.”
He explained that Penn’s percentage of the revenue generated by the pharmaceutical firm depends upon the launch and sale of products.
Director of the Penn Med’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research Virginia Lee said the school has a history of reaching out to corporations.
Lee explained that AstraZeneca first worked with Penn Med through its Office of Corporate Alliances. AstraZeneca funded Penn neuroscientists through the office for about four years before agreeing to work with the CNDR on Alzheimer’s.
“What’s really unique about this collaboration is that any drug that results is shared intellectual property,” Lee said. “We aren’t just contracted to do their science. If they make money off of this collaboration, a certain amount of it would come back to the University.”
Though Penn can do preclinical studies — such as safety and efficacy studies on animals — Lee said at that stage, Penn needs to seek corporate partners to proceed with the study.
“We do not have the resources to bring a drug to market. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars,” Lee said. AstraZeneca, on the other hand, can “scale up production” of any drug discoveries, she added.
However, Lee emphasized that there is still little known about Alzheimer’s, including its variable progression and indicators of its onset in different individuals. “When you become a little bit forgetful, you’re well into the disease. We want to know when the disease really starts,” she said.
Lee explained that the CNDR will try to research earlier indications of the disease, its manifestations in different people and treatments for those who are already diagnosed.
“It’ll be a while — maybe five to 10 years — but the community should be successful” in finding treatment, she said.
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