Representatives from Big Pharma, biotech, and government agreed that collaborations among the three groups have advanced the discovery and development of novel cancer treatments, especially targeted therapies such as monoclonal antibodies.

Dr Louise Grochow, Medical Science Senior Director at AstraZeneca, led this panel discussion that explored the ways in which the different groups benefit from these collaborations. For Big Pharma, it gains access to new expertise and technologies spawned by biotechs; for biotechs, they gain resources, tremendous depth in areas such as target biology, and accelerated development of their projects. For both groups, interest from the National Cancer Institute means that their new therapies may be introduced to additional clinical trial opportunities.

In the end, the panel agreed that size – company size that is – does not always matter. “We know that speed matters,” Dr Grochow said. "What affects speed perhaps more than anything is the company – and what it chooses as its priorities."

The panel participants:

• Louise Grochow, Product Medical Director, AstraZeneca (chair)
• Ronald Pepin, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Medarex, Inc.
• Gisela Schwab, Chief Medical Officer, Abgenix, Inc.
• Thomas Davis, Senior Investigator, NCI/CTEP
• Phil Frost, Executive Vice President and CSO, ImClone

Published 12 July 2005