The Drug Discovery Pathways Group’s work has largely focused on three main areas:
- Industry-academia partnerships.
- Knowledge.
- And skills.
Industry-academia partnerships
Collaboration between industry and academia is vital to enable the translation of biomedical opportunities into safe and effective medicines. A complementary and sustainable model with public and private sector participation is urgently required.
It is becoming increasingly important for researchers to move freely between disciplines and sectors in order to build networks, drive forward research into new medicines and support ongoing career development. The DDPG is working with academia, industry and funding bodies to help establish a more ‘permeable’ environment that encourages researcher mobility.
Knowledge
As well as maintaining a deep knowledge of their core discipline, researchers increasingly need to have a working knowledge of aligned disciplines as well as the transferable skills that enable them to function effectively across scientific, cultural and geographical boundaries. One way to support this is through Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The DDPG will be working alongside organizations such as Cogent and the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) to ensure that training, CPD and mentorship opportunities effectively address the future needs of drug discovery researchers.
Skills
The general trend towards downsizing among large multinational pharmaceutical companies has resulted in a lowered training capacity. It is vital that key skills are not lost and the DDPG recognizes that there is a window of opportunity to retain and develop world class talent. To this end, a skills sub-group has been formed to address these issues.
A number of the individual member societies within the Drug Discovery Skills Group (DDSG) have created skills statements. These outline the skills requirements for medicines development within their each individual disciplines:
It is important that scientists in any specific discipline have a working knowledge of other key disciplines; the group is therefore working towards a cross-discipline s skills audit based on these statements. Interaction and close cooperation with those working in different subject areas is vital in order to facilitate effective and meaningful exchange of data and information. By working togethereveryone can contribute to intelligent decision-making within the drurg design and development process.