Early-stage drug discovery is rapidly evolving into an endeavour in which scientific research communities in both the public and private sectors are finding new ways to share knowledge, expertise and resources. Here, we discuss some of the challenges for such collaborations and highlight examples in which traditional barriers such as intellectual property concerns have been addressed.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Paul, S. M. et al. How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry's grand challenge. Nature Rev. Drug. Discov. 9, 203–213 (2010).
Mullard. A. European Lead Factory opens for business. Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 12, 173–175 (2013).
Johnston, K. L. et al. Overcoming the challenges of drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases: The A•WOL experience. J. Biomol. Screen. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1087057113511270 (2013).
Kogej, T. et al. Big pharma screening collections: more of the same or unique libraries? The AstraZeneca–Bayer Pharma AG case. Drug Discov. Today. 18, 1014–1024 (2013).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
P.B.S. is an employee of AstraZeneca and M.R. is an employee of the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research Chemical Genomics Center.
Related links
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Simpson, P., Reichman, M. Opening the lead generation toolbox. Nat Rev Drug Discov 13, 3–4 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4202
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4202
This article is cited by
-
Drug repurposing for antimicrobial discovery
Nature Microbiology (2019)
-
Towards a hit for every target
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (2016)
-
The toolbox is open, but who should pay for the job?
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (2014)