Universities have stepped up their drug discovery efforts as pharmaceutical companies have shuttered research and development labs, former Pfizer global research and development president John LaMattina writes. More universities worldwide are joining the Academic Drug Discovery Consortium, which facilitates the exchange of knowledge and expertise among centers and provides a platform for collaborating with drugmakers, providers and government institutions, including the NIH. Universities benefit through royalties when collaborations result in marketable drugs, as is the case at Princeton University, which has reaped more than $524 million in royalties from cancer drug Alimta.
