Collaboration has emerged as the preferred way forward for pharmaceutical companies looking to address the patent cliff, a drying product pipeline and challenges associated with R&D. Toeing the line, the top 10 pharma giants have come together to form a not-for-profit organization to push drug discovery. TransCelerate BioPharma, as the initiative is called, has Abbott, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi as members and is the biggest-ever of its kind in the sector.

The name, TransCelerate BioPharma, refers to transforming and accelerating R&D functions across the biopharmaceutical industry, and the organization will focus on accelerating the developments of new medicines by building on the strengths of the partners.

Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, TransCelerate will combine financial resources and personnel of the founding companies to solve industry-wide challenges in a collaborative environment. "TransCelerate seeks to advance innovation in research and development, identify and solve common R&D challenges, and further improve patient safety with the goal of delivering more high quality medicines to the patients," says Mr Garry Neil, acting CEO, TransCelerate BioPharma.

While speaking about the importance of collaboration, Mr Venkat Jassi, CEO and chairman, Suven Lifesciences, pointed out at a recently held CEO conclave at the India-Asia Pacific International Pharma Business meet in Hyderabad, India, that, "collaboration is the key in this industry; be it collaboration among the industry and institutions or among the companies in the industry".

The members of TransCelerate have agreed to specific outcome-oriented deliverables and have clearly defined responsibilities. "Each company will be committing significant financial resources and personnel, and will establish guidelines for sharing meaningful data and information among members in a way that will advance the collaborative efforts without disclosing any competitively sensitive information," adds Mr Neil.