Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business (Part 7): Collaboration = Leverage

Mutually beneficial exchange of information offers a means of accelerating the efficiency of drug discovery.  At CDD over the last 8 years we've been obsessed with engineering a collaborative, web-based platform that allows anyone to leverage other scientists’ drug discovery results while maintaining intellectual property rights.

However....given the mix of commercial and altruistic motives that has driven drug discovery research (and researchers) from day one, how will this really work in practice?  There are sicknesses to heal and early deaths to avoid, but there is also money to be made.  Can leading researchers effectively collaborate while maximizing the intellectual property rights required for commercialization?

What is the analogy to the healthy, efficient mix of open source and commercial software with similar, underlying altruistic and market drivers, when the currency is valuable scientific data in lieu of code?   Can advanced technology allow anyone (with commercial and/or altruistic drivers) to confidently, confidentially, selectively, and ideally easily share data within their natural workflow(s)?

The answer is YES, but with some caveats.  First you need a collaborative mindset that appreciates the leverage gained by collaborating with others.  Second you need to appropriately use technologies that make collaborations work better – fortunately, rapid progress has occurred in this hyper-competitive field.  With the enlightened use of collaborative technologies, more opportunities are realized because everyone with complementary capabilities is on the same page, to the minute.  Complex collaborations scale.

Efficiency is possible with a nuanced appreciation of the leverage obtained from initiating and executing successful collaborations.   Collaboration = Leverage.

For full context, find the link to each entry of our 12-part series, "Collaboration is the Key to Turning Around the Drug Discovery Business" using the links below:

Read Part 1: Collaboration as the key for turning around the drug discovery business – The Problem

Read Part 2: Collaboration as the key for turning around the drug discovery business – The Hypothesis

Read Part 3: Collaboration as the key for turning around the drug discovery business – A Solution

Read Part 4: Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business – Collaboration and Innovation

Read Part 5: Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business - A Monte Carlo Simulation

Read Part 6: Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business - Technology can Make Things Easier

Read Part 7: Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business: Collaboration = Leverage

Read Part 8: Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business – Standards

Especially read Part 9:  Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business - Collaborate Better

Part 10:  Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business - Learning from eBay, NASDAQ, Airlines, & Hollywood

Part 11: Collaborative as the key to turning around the drug discovery business - The Future

Part 12: Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business

P.S. Beyond collaboration as a more enlightened approach to science, here are the top 5 practical reasons collaborative scientists rock with CDD: 5 Reasons Why Collaborative Scientists Use CDD

You can also download the full series “Collaboration as the key to turning around the drug discovery business” by Barry Bunin as a pdf document:

This blog is authored by members of the CDD Vault community. CDD Vault is a hosted drug discovery informatics platform that securely manages both private and external biological and chemical data. It provides core functionality including chemical registration, structure activity relationship, chemical inventory, and electronic lab notebook capabilities!

CDD Vault: Drug Discovery Informatics your whole project team will embrace!