Aside from the large-scale infrastructure projects they are typically associated with, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly becoming a cornerstone of pharmaceutical research. These collaborations are crucial to advancing drug development and addressing global health challenges, providing several benefits over conventional models.
In short, PPPs are a collaborative effort between governments and the private sector that allows projects to be completed in a timely manner or even makes the project possible when public funds are not typically available.
Multiple-stakeholder PPPs incorporating actors from academia, SMEs, corporations, and governmental agencies facilitate an entrepreneurial spirit in the pharmaceutical industry and spur biomedical R&D efforts, bringing new drugs and therapies to the market faster.1,2
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Benefits of Public-Private Partnerships
PPPs provide advantages to all parties working together to move a pharmaceutical project from initial clinical trials to the final market position. Private sector funding, technology, and innovation, for instance, can help to improve operational efficiency.
The public sector additionally incentivizes the private sector to deliver new products in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Moreover, economic diversification provides benefits for nations, boosting infrastructure, support services, and pharmaceutical industry-adjacent businesses.1
PPPs provide specific benefits to the pharmaceutical industry, which is typically hindered by several bottlenecks, such as the prohibitive cost of developing new drugs and therapies. Well-designed PPPs bring together multiple stakeholders and align investments, efforts, and incentives, which can address these bottlenecks.3 PPPs facilitate the sharing of resources help reduce costs and accelerate research.
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Successful Examples of Public-Private Partnerships in Pharmaceutical Research
There have been notable success stories in the pharmaceutical industry where PPPs helped to accelerate medical research. These have differed in research focus, geographical spread, and size, but all have had an impact on the direction of pharmaceutical development in recent years.
The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) was established in 2003 by the Institute of Governance and RAND Europe to foster collaboration in biomedical research. Academic institutions in the US, UK, Brazil, Germany, and Sweden, including the University of Oxford and the University of North Carolina.
The focus of the SGC is to accelerate the cost-effectiveness of drug discovery by determining 3D protein structures that could provide new drugs. In 2013 alone, 1195 protein structures, 98 antibodies, 83 protein sequences, and 17 tools and probes were discovered and developed by the PPP. This initiative also produced 452 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals.2
In the EU, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), with the aid of a 5 billion Euro budget, supports innovative drugs, vaccines, and therapies. The main aim of this initiative, which has funded around 80 public-private partnerships, is to foster competitiveness, innovation, and R&D in Europe.2
Another notable PPP during the COVID-19 pandemic was the Vaccination Equity Initiative, a Microsoft-led PPP that sought to foster collaboration between bodies to improve vaccine rates in underserved and marginalized communities and overcome vaccine hesitancy.4
Finally, the biggest PPP in Alzheimer’s research, the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), has helped to further understanding of this complex degenerative neurological condition with the help of $150 million in research funding, producing data that has been cited in hundreds of publications in this important field of biomedical research.2
Challenges and Limitations
However, while PPPs bring significant benefits to the pharmaceutical industry, they also have some challenges and limitations that facilitate close and ongoing work between stakeholders to assure success.
From the perspective of governmental agencies and public bodies, there is some degree of financial risk involved, which can have negative consequences. After all, any money that comes from governments and public bodies is usually from the taxpayer, so the costs of PPPs must be justified to the public. Complex regulatory hurdles can also provide challenges for corporate, academic, and public partners.
Pharmaceutical R&D is also a long and complex process, with no guarantee of the successful development of a new drug, vaccine, or therapy. Private partners, who are beholden to their shareholders and profit margins by nature, may demand results to reassure shareholders. Limited resources can also prove challenging for PPPs.
Private companies may be reluctant to fund some PPPs if they cannot guarantee results, instead choosing to divert their resources to other projects and initiatives, potentially ending the development of promising, innovative therapies, especially those for less common but no less debilitating or potentially fatal conditions and diseases.2
PPPs in the pharmaceutical industry can be severely limited by their nature: Studies have found that they are typically inflexible and can suffer from time limitations, for instance. Furthermore, aligning goals between public and private bodies can be challenging. Regulatory hurdles can significantly impact the success of PPPs.
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Strategies for Effective Partnerships
Whilst PPPs are complex and challenging undertakings for stakeholders, some strategies, if implemented properly, can make them successful and reap benefits for the pharmaceutical sector and public health.
Firstly, goals must be clearly defined and jointly agreed upon. Secondly, a PPP needs collaborative decision-making between partners. Horizontal processes and non-hierarchical structures should also be key features of an effective PPP.
Additionally, a successful partnership will involve strong levels of transparency and cooperation, as well as shared accountability for outcomes, both positive and negative.4
Future Directions
Precompetitive biomedical PPPs have started to produce tangible outcomes, according to some reviews. PPPs are intimately linked with the growing paradigm of “open innovation” in the pharmaceutical industry.
Traditional PPPs are largely inflexible, but in recent years there has been an emerging trend of involving non-traditional stakeholders such as patient advocacy groups, regulatory scientists, and health foundations. It is likely that this trend will continue as government and industry recognize the value of their contribution to advancing pharmaceutical R&D.2
Further collaboration between multiple stakeholders will continue to advance the efficacy of PPPs in the pharma space.
In Conclusion
Pharmaceutical research and development is an extraordinarily complex field of scientific study. Well-designed and effective PPPs offer significant benefits for companies and academic institutions by providing funding and resources typically not available, which can hinder the development of new drugs and therapies.
Whilst challenges persist with these partnerships and the wider pharma industry, several notable PPPs in recent years have provided tangible results for a variety of biomedical research areas, attesting to their suitability as future-ready models of funding and development strategy in an ever-evolving pharma industry.
References
- Investopedia (2024) Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs): Definition, How They Work, and Examples [online] Investopedia.com. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/public-private-partnerships.asp (Accessed on 18 September 2024)
- De Vrueh, R.L.A & Crommelin, D.J.A (2017) Reflections on the Future of Pharmaceutical Public-Private Partnerships: From Input to Impact Pharmaceutical Research 34 pp. 1985-1999 [online] Springer Link. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11095-017-2192-5 (Accessed on 19 September 2024)
- Said, M & Zerhouni, E (2014) The role of public–private partnerships in addressing the biomedical innovation challenge Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 13 pp. 789-790 [online] nature.com. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd443 (Accessed on 19 September 2024)
- Healthcare Distribution Alliance (2023) https://www.hda.org/getmedia/341b69aa-773f-4d66-a9c9-56b0cd1c0d68/HDA-Factsheet-Leveraging-PPPs-To-Strengthen-Healthcare-and-Public-Health-FINAL.pdf
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