Dec 12, 2008
Think Tank Examines How to Turn More Lab Discoveries into New Therapies for Progressive MS
Fast Forward and Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center bring together competitors to strategize on overcoming gaps in the therapy pipeline
What are the barriers to finding therapies that can stop and reverse the nervous system injury caused by multiple sclerosis? A think tank held by Fast Forward, LLC, the National MS Society’s drug discovery venture, in collaboration with Harvard’s NeuroDiscovery Center, gathered representatives from venture capital firms, voluntary health and patient advocacy groups, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and university-based research scientists to share information and ideas around this issue and ways to overcome them.
The barriers discussed are not just medical such as the need for understanding nervous system injury in MS and ways to track its repair but also relate to the need to change traditional business models of pharmaceutical companies and universities, needed change in the expectations of drug regulatory authorities, and large-scale, high-tech cooperative tools that could speed this work.
Identifying Barriers and Opportunities
One big barrier to getting new drugs to treat and prevent neurodegeneration in MS is the cost, which can scare companies from taking on financial risks early in the development of a potential therapy. Commenting to participants, National MS Society President/CEO Joyce Nelson quoted some sobering statistics: It takes an average of 16 years, and up to $1.5 billion, to bring a promising new drug to market -- and only one out of every 10,000 agents make it that far.
Sha Mi, PhD, Principal Investigator at Biogen Idec, shared lab work her company is doing to develop an antibody that blocks a molecule called LINGO to enhance nervous system repair. Marie Filbin, PhD (Hunter College, City University of New York) summarized some of her team’s work on some potential new targets for stopping ongoing brain injury in MS, and their identification of several compounds that can stop that injury at least in the lab. The challenge that Dr. Filbin and other basic researchers face is that they are not equipped to do the vast number of medicinal chemistry tests and steps needed to take a promising lab compound and turn it into a commercial drug, such as what Biogen Idec hopes to do with the LINGO antibody.
Peter Stys, MD (University of Calgary) described some important discoveries related to MS nerve damage and some commonalities he sees to the pathology of stroke that are opening up new possibilities for intervention. Phil De Jager, MD, PhD (Harvard Medical School) summarized recent progress in identifying genes that make people susceptible to MS, and a major push the International MS Genetics Consortium hopes to make over the next year to identify all of the genes that contribute to MS, which will open the door to understanding its cause and ways to stop the disease.
“Playing Together in the Sandbox”
The good news it that many promising biological targets such as these are being identified, largely by university researchers, which may hold promise for MS and other neurological diseases. And bridges are being built, by Fast Forward, Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center and others, to forge new coalitions among seeming competitors to speed drugs from lab bench to clinic.
Participants generally agreed that change in attitudes and approach are needed across the board. Universities, where most of the basic research breakthroughs occur, need to reward translational research by its investigators, and be flexible about intellectual property. Industry and venture capitalists need to do a better job at being open to taking risks. And funding agencies may need to create shared platforms that will enhance the search for MS biomarkers and better pre-clinical models for testing new nervous system repair drugs, and help drug regulators accept new models and new proofs of efficacy in this new world of drugs focusing on reversing damage.
The think tank is one example of Fast Forward’s strategies: to create alliances and collaborations even among competitors that will nourish and speed drug development efforts. “This is about collaborations, about conversations, about getting people to play in the sandbox together in a way where everyone wins,” said Timothy Coetzee, PhD, Executive Director of Fast Forward.
The think tank participants may seem like strange bedfellows venture capitalists, voluntary health and patient advocacy groups, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, and university-based research scientists. But they are all motivated by hopes of having new and better MS therapies available faster.
- Think tank agenda and program
- Read more about Fast Forward
- National MS Society efforts to repair and protect the nervous system in MS