Precompeitive Efficienies in Drug Discovery and the Sherman Act

Jun 30, 2012 by Journal of Clinical Toxicology

Precompetitive collaboration usually takes place between either a public and private institution or within a consortium. For example, the NIH is working to identify systematic bottlenecks in the drug approval process. Specifically, the NIH is working to develop a clinical toxicology biochip that mimics human cells to test new drugs against. Such a biochip is expected to reduce phase II failure, which is characterized by safety but inefficacy and improve target validation. An even more pronounced example of precompetitive collaboration are information networks over which to share bio-pathway knowledge for drug discovery. Both increasing the rapidity of target validation and information sharing are example of precompetitive collaboration, in so far as the technologies, in theory, benefit all of the competitors in a given sector. The FDA, too, is working on improved predictive and evaluative tools, using bioinformatics to develop a product development infrastructure. Such an infrastructure would decrease duplicative investment in clinical trials by standardizing and sharing e.g., drug failure data.