Partnering as a key success factor in pharmaceutical R&D

Partnering has become a key element of strategy for pharmaceutical companies. Different stakeholders are involved or specialise in diverse areas of interest for medicine R&D. Collaboration can result in faster access to new findings, technologies and can enable companies to enter new research areas. This allows academic and industry partners to work together to identify and develop innovative research and novel medicines.

While interaction with most stakeholders has improved along the whole value chain, the involvement of patients in the R&D process is growing but still at an early stage. The interaction with patients is generally focused around late stages of development and when the new product is going on to the market. A more active involvement in the earlier development stages should be promoted and encouraged although a few examples exist (see Section 6 on individual projects). This is one of the main reasons for the EUPATI programme.