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Bringing Ideas to Life: A Study in Asthma 05.07.07 (continued from previous page) John Fahy, MD, director of the UCSF Airway Center, has been working with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for more than 12 years. One of his latest projects is working with a leading biotech company to study gene and protein expression abnormalities in blood and airway samples from people who have asthma. The project advances Fahy's interests as a clinical scientist hoping to increase the understanding of underlying causes of asthma. At the same time, it helps the corporate partner identify potential therapeutic approaches that could lead to new treatments. Fahy's first step in putting together the partnership was contacting a researcher he was acquainted with and who worked at a biotech company that he knew was interested in lung diseases. Indeed, for Fahy, the first step in partnerships is always finding a contact within his target company. "A partnership can be difficult to organize if the researcher has no prior experience with the company," Fahy says. "You may have a great idea for a strategic partnership, but if you pitch it to the wrong people, it will go nowhere." The average partnership takes between 12 and 18 months to formally arrange; typically the whole process slows down in the end. "The devil's in the details," Fahy notes, "and there are many issues to consider. Human research is highly regulated, so it behooves you to go slowly." Although Fahy relied on campus resources for support in the early stages of developing the partnership, and again in the contractual stages, he says "the best helper I have is myself and my close faculty colleagues. The entire process can be very daunting. But it's the principal investigator that drives it. You can't just sit back and wait for it to happen. At the end of the day, you have to push it yourself." While Fahy's industry partner is interested in commercializing new drugs, the company understands that the only certainty is the exploratory research that expands understanding of biological processes. Source: Susan Davis
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