Title: Managing a strategic industry-academia alliance for drug discovery: a case study of the Astellas Pharma Inc.-Kyoto University Project

Authors: Chikako Saotome; Seiji Abe; Yutaka Teranishi; Shuh Narumiya

Addresses: The Center for Innovation in Immunoregulative Technology and Therapeutics; Department of the Management of Technology and Intellectual Property, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Yoshida-Konoe-Cho, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan ' Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Yoshida-Konoe-Cho, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan ' Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Yoshida-Konoe-Cho, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan ' Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Yoshida-Konoe-Cho, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan

Abstract: Pharmaceutical companies are now facing a so-called 'patent-cliff', suffer from decreased profits and are conducting various trials of open innovation, which deviates from their autarkic R&D model. Academia is also suffering from financial cut-backs in governmental support for general activity and research. To overcome these two current problems, it is essential to create a new model of industry-academia cooperation. The Astellas Pharma Inc.-Kyoto University Project (AK Project), which started in 2007, is a strategic alliance for the development of immunotherapeutics. It also serves as an open innovation model whose primary purpose is to revitalise both industry and academia. This paper describes how to manage the collaboration to simultaneously accelerate science and drug development and how to synergise efforts between academia and industry by shuttling between the bench and the bed-side. This paper also discusses how to manage intellectual property, especially with respect to the coordination of patent applications and publications.

Keywords: drug discovery; collaborative research; intellectual property management; open innovation; technology management; case study; university-industry cooperation; industrial collaboration; technology transfer; strategic alliances; Astellas Pharma Inc; Kyoto University; pharmaceutical industry; immunotherapeutics; drug development; patent applications; scientific publications; university research; R&D; research and development; Japan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2012.052415

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2012 Vol.11 No.3/4, pp.156 - 176

Received: 08 Nov 2011
Accepted: 18 Apr 2012

Published online: 21 Nov 2014 *

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