Your examples of important hybrid academic–industrial partnerships for drug development come mostly from the United States (Nature 509, 146; 2014). The Institute of Cancer Research in London has long benefited from such hybrid models. When normalized for each faculty member, our income from intellectual property is highest among UK universities and ranked in the top ten relative to US institutions (see go.nature.com/ohyuqj).

Since 2005 we have discovered 17 drug candidates — in several cases with our industry partners — and 7 of these have progressed to phase I/II clinical trials. Our drug abiraterone was approved in the United States and Europe in 2011, and has changed clinical practice for treating advanced prostate cancer (see J. S. de Bono et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 364, 1995–2005; 2011). Other examples include drugs that target breast, lung and other cancers by inhibiting proteins such as phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase (F. I. Raynaud et al. Mol. Cancer Ther. 8, 1725–1738; 2009) and the molecular chaperone HSP90 (S. A. Eccles et al. Cancer Res. 68, 2850–2860; 2008).

These successes are a result of taking early academic risks, combining academic and pharmaceutical expertise, and implementing strong leadership and project management. Other contributing factors include running multiple projects on a competitive scale, establishing long-term financial support and — most important — selecting productive and timely industrial collaborations.