D4 panel discussion on enabling early drug discovery - From left to right: Rajesh Ranganathan, NINDS, Stephen Freedman, Gladstone Institutes, Juan Harrison, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Cathy Tralau-Stewart, UCSF, and Alan Ashworth, UCSF.
On April 15, 2015, more than forty leaders from across the University of California (UC) system joined representatives from the biomedical industry to discuss plans for strengthening UC’s position as a leader in drug, device and diagnostics development. The meeting was part of the Drug and Device Discovery and Development (D4) initiative, a collaborative effort among UC’s five medical campuses to pool resources and expertise to accelerate the discovery and development of products that improve health.
Led by June Lee, Professor of Medicine and Director, Early Translational Research at UCSF, D4 has been working in tandem with the University of California Biomedical Research Acceleration, Integration & Development (UC BRAID) program to define D4’s priorities. In her introductory remarks, Lee outlined those priorities – creating an efficient model for multi-campus collaborations with industry partners and setting up a UC Drug Discovery Alliance.
Lee commented, “We have come a long way since the inception of D4 two years ago and are now in the position to take tangible steps forward on these priorities. By bringing diverse stakeholders from all of our medical campuses together with leaders from the UC Office of the President and external stakeholders, we will be able to put together and execute on an informed plan.”
The full day event, held in San Francisco, consisted of panel discussions and breakout sessions.
The first panel addressed how to set up a successful collaboration between several UC institutions and an industry partner and featured representatives from UCSF, UC Irvine, UC Davis, MedImmune and Quest Diagnostics. Among the topics discussed were how to create a mechanism for connecting industry with academic researchers, streamlining the contracting process and managing complex collaborative projects. UC BRAID has already commenced work on multi-campus agreements in the realm of clinical trials.
The second panel discussed enabling and stimulating early drug discovery in academia and debated models for the creation of the UC Drug Discovery Alliance. Representatives from UCSF, Gladstone Institutes, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, MedImmune and the NIH participated.
“The UC system is uniquely positioned to be successful in drug discovery,” said Cathy Tralau-Stewart of UCSF, who led the panel discussion. Tralau-Stewart, who is the Head of the Therapeutics Track for UCSF’s Catalyst Program, previously ran a drug discovery center at Imperial College London and was Associate Director of Pharmacology at GlaxoSmithKline. “World class research expertise, extensive core facilities and access to California’s well-developed innovation ecosystem of leading biotechs and pharmas are strong differentiators for UC in the drug development space,” she said.