Approach

We believe in virtual drug development.

The current model of drug development is unsustainable. Honed in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when blockbuster drugs were relatively easy to find, the current paradigm displays “gold-rush economics” – optimized for speed not cost efficiency.

But today, too many drug candidates are failing in development, or – worse still –failing in the marketplace to sustain this “whatever it costs” discovery and development framework. Making drug discovery economically viable again calls for a radical reduction in cost, but without sacrificing quality.

One of the best ways of achieving the required cost reductions is to out-source. As long as you can find high quality, reliable contractors to out-source to, then your project can move forward more quickly and more cheaply than with conventional in-house development teams. But that is a big proviso – contract research organisations (CROs) are good at doing the same thing over and over, but they often struggle to tailor their services to the needs of your particular project.

It's not surprising. Drug development is a complex activity, not unlike building a house from scratch. You need many different skills (from bricklaying to plumbing, electricians to plasterers) each a specialist in their own field, and usually unable to do the other tasks at all well. But these tradesmen need to follow a plan – and that's the job of the architect.

The Cambridge Partnership provides that framework and direction that allows all your specialists to function smoothly in a virtual or semi-virtual environment.