Eli Lilly's Open Source Approach To Early Stage Research

Eli Lilly & Co., which like many big pharmas faces patent expiries and an uncertain late-stage pipeline, has worked to improve ties with the venture and academic communities to help spur access to early-stage and less expensive assets. The pharma's latest attempt to woo academics is perhaps not as flashy as the methods of competitors such as Pfizer Inc., Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline PLC – each of which is putting considerable resources behind gaining access to top-notch academic researchers worldwide. But Lilly plans to make up for that in simplicity and sheer volume. ( See "Back To School: Big Pharmas Test New Models For Tapping Academia," IN VIVO , February 2011 Also see "Back To School: Big Pharmas Test New Models For Tapping Academia " - In Vivo, 1 February, 2011..)

Since 2009 Lilly has operated a web portal that allows outside researchers to submit compounds for interrogation using Eli Lilly's drug-discovery assays. Call it the "pull" or opt-in approach to biopharma alliances. The project, "recently renamed the Open Innovation Drug Discovery initiative (OIDD), is part of an ongoing effort by Lilly to promote collaboration via providing free access to nearly a dozen assays designed to measure cellular responses and mechanism of action data to potentially interesting compounds