Some of the world’s biggest drugs manufacturers are collaborating on a £40 million fund to back university research.
GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson will contribute £10 million each to the Apollo Therapeutics Fund, with the technology transfer offices of the University of Cambridge, Imperial College and University College London contributing £3.3 million each over the next six years.
The fund will pay for pre-clinical research, with the most rewarding results being taken further by one of the companies after an internal bidding contest or being licensed externally.
The backers say that it will accelerate the development of new drugs, will cut costs and help to spread risk. Only about one in ten medicines that enter clinical trials get as far as patients.
Ian Tomlinson,