TAIPEI, Taiwan – Astrazeneca plc and Taiwan’s National Research Program for Biopharmaceuticals (NRPB) are collaborating to repurpose a basket of clinical-stage drug candidates provided by the London-based big pharma for possible new therapies targeting Asian-prevalent diseases, using an open innovation model of development.

Where it has been set up to date, open innovation is typically used on chemical libraries – thousands or hundreds of thousands of compounds at a time – with collaborative partners working toward lead identification, for example.

What makes the Astrazeneca-NRPB collaboration unique is that researchers will be invited to work on compounds already at the Phase I or II trial stage.

Also special is the goal of the program: To re-purpose existing drugs into applications not originally in the development blueprint.

“The focus is to test these compounds for better efficacy in Asian subjects. Some of these drugs had high hopes originally, but didn’t work out as expected in Caucasian populations. But there is a possibility for better efficacy in Asian populations,” Michael M.C. Lai, director of the NRPB, told BioWorld Today.

Conventional drug development tends to follow a serial progression; one indication focused on, success or failure, and then try the next one. With open innovation, groups of researchers work in parallel, which encourages simultaneous multiple indication / application development. As such, it is perfect for the goal of drug re-purposing, where it is not always intuitive which direction will lead to success.

The Game Plan

Details of the 20 or so compounds from Astrazeneca will be posted online and proposals for re-purposing will be solicited from researchers at Taiwan’s top academic institutes.

After screening by a committee of NRPB and Astrazeneca scientists, successful applicants will have their research projects funded by the NRPB, with Astrazeneca providing ongoing support with clinical trial material, advice on regulatory filing, etc.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

The program follows on from successful open innovation projects Astrazeneca already has set up with the Medical Research Council (MRC) of the UK, beginning at the end of 2011, and with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, beginning in mid-2012. These programs are already showing good results; the collaboration with MRC for example has generated 15 projects undergoing current study in a variety of disease therapeutics. (See BioWorld Today, May 4, 2012.)

The Taiwan deal breaks new ground for both the NRPB and Astrazeneca. For NRPB, it’s the first time partnering with an international entity. For Astrazeneca, it’s the first such research collaboration outside of the U.S. or Europe.

Why choose Taiwan for their first foray into Asia with open innovation? Don Frail, vice president and head, Emerging Innovations, Science Partnerships and Alliances at Astrazeneca, told BioWorld Today,

“There are multiple reasons. The first is that the science in Taiwan is highly recognized for its innovation. The second is that Taiwan has developed a full drug discovery and development continuum with many strong capabilities. There are strong clinical trial capabilities here in Taiwan to explore the use of new patient populations. And research here is supported and valued. And there is a strong interest and alignment of purpose over the last six months of discussion [between our two groups], including the disease areas that we have in common.”

And what is it about open innovation that has not just Astrazeneca, but also many multinational pharmaceutical companies excited about the possibilities?

“We embrace this concept because we think that good ideas can come from pretty much anywhere. And that if we only do this alone we will not succeed. If we bundle our minds and resources the potential can be unlimited,” said Christian Macher, country president, Astrazeneca Taiwan. “We will look back at this moment as a milestone, coming together; Astrazeneca bringing the compounds, Taiwan is bringing the smart scientists and part of the funding to see what new treatments are out there.”