[sc-announce] Collaborating for breakthroughs -- Science Commons blog

Donna Wentworth dwentworth at creativecommons.org
Fri Jul 4 07:39:12 EDT 2008


Collaborating for breakthroughs

July 4th, 2008<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/07/04/collaborating-for-breakthroughs/>by
dwentworth

Over at the FasterCures <http://www.fastercures.org/> blog, Margaret
Anderson, the organization's Chief Operating Officer, has a
post<http://fastercures.blogspot.com/2008/06/nonprofits-find-and-fund-big-ideas-in.html>on
the recent Institute
of Medicine <http://www.iom.edu/> forum: *Breakthrough Business Models: Drug
Development for Rare and Neglected Diseases and Individualized
Therapies<http://www.iom.edu/?id=54295>
*. Anderson, who moderated a panel at the forum, observes that while
the Michael
J. Fox Foundation <http://www.michaeljfox.org/> is often cited as an example
of what's working well, surprisingly few research foundations embrace its
innovative approaches. Key among them:  pursuing collaborations with
for-profit companies.

The focus of the forum was on finding new models for drug development, and
many speakers echoed Anderson in emphasizing the need for more
public-private collaboration. Our own Kaitlin
Thaney<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/07/04/about/whoweare/thaney/>was
there, and spoke with fellow participants about our newest project,
the Health
Commons<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/07/04/projects/healthcommons/>.
The project, launched in collaboration with
CommerceNet<http://www.commerce.net/>,
CollabRx <http://collabrx.com/> and the Public Library of Science
(PLoS<http://www.plos.org/>),
is designed specifically to lift barriers to collaborations among non-profit
and for-profit entities.

"In the Health Commons, participants agree to share data, knowledge,
materials and services under standard, pre-negotiated terms and conditions,"
explains Thaney. "That way, resources can move smoothly among participants,
without the legal wrangling and delays that can derail collaboration."

One of the most troublesome areas, for foundations and companies alike, is
materials transfer. On the panel that Anderson moderated, Michael Mowatt,
who directs the Office of Technology
Development<http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/about/organization/odoffices/omo/otd/>at
the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases <http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/>,
NIH <http://www.nih.gov/>, described <http://www.iom.edu/?id=55985> how
using standardized agreements and repositories can facilitate collaboration,
and explained how our Biological Materials Transfer Agreement
(MTA<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/07/04/projects/licensing/>)
project lays the groundwork for "virtual repositories" of biological
materials.

You can find more information about the MTA project
here<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/07/04/projects/licensing/>.
If you'd like to learn more about the Health Commons, you can check out the
white paper or video introduction at the project
site<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/07/04/projects/healthcommons/>.
And if you'd like more details on the IOM forum, you can find the agenda and
a collection of audio recordings and slides at the IOM forum
website<http://www.iom.edu/?id=54295>
.

................
 Donna Wentworth
Communications Specialist
Science Commons
http://sciencecommons.org
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