Old times of in-ward looking collaborations seem to be eased out by enlightened (or naive??), idealistic real-world thinking.

GSK, AZ and the University of Manchester are each investing £5 million to create a new translational research center--the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research--which will be devoted to inflammatory diseases. They plan to recruit scientists who will devote their time to developing new therapeutics for a variety of inflammatory diseases, including COPD, rheumatoid arthritis, IBD and asthma. The new collaborative center will open later this year.

"...we believe we improve our chances of success through collaborative science..." says GSK.

"...this is a ground-breaking collaboration. The creation of the new centre is indicative of a new era of pre-competitive sharing within the pharmaceutical sector and with academic scientists, to bring our learning together to ensure the faster delivery of effective medicines to patients..." says AZ.

Sanofi's Zerhouni was recruited to head R&amp from NIH and thought that the biotech model was the solution to Sanofi's R&amp woes. Now he thinks differently and is in favor of "open innovation" environment.

Translational research--the leap from bench to bedside has become harder. That requires scientists to get out of Sanofi's R&amp silo and out in the world, working with university based research teams and getting into the field with doctors to get a more real-world look at the experimental drugs needed to treat patients. Sanofi had inked academic collaborations with UCSF, Harvard and a host of others.

Sanofi has chopped its total number of development projects in half so it could better focus on its best prospects.

Partnerships between Big Pharma companies breaking down research silos and academic institutions avid to do more collaborative work are all the rage these days. And there's plenty of evidence that this trend is continuing to gain steam.