Strategic Alliance with MD Anderson – Drug Development Support for Japanese companies

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Boston Strategics (BS), a US company founded in April, 2012, provides drug development support for Japanese pharmaceutical companies, as well as academic and venture entities. Entering into an alliance with University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), a world leader in cancer treatment and oncology research, Boston Strategics provides services ranging from drug/biologics global strategic planning to specific preclinical and clinical development support, and manufacturing for the oncology therapy area. Boston Strategics utilizes their vast global network of contact experts, and a combination of expertise of academic and community investigators to provide integrated contract services.

The drug development paradigm of pharmaceutical companies has been shifting from internal development to Open Innovation utilizing external alliances. With a small employee-based team of highly experienced oncology drug/biologic development experts, Boston Strategics can provide a drug development platform for pharmaceutical companies by optimizing its strong and global network of contract research organizations (CROs), contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), and consultants. Boston Strategics has a track record in providing such services to three Japanese pharmaceutical companies, which led to the strategic alliance with MDACC as a preferred provider of early translational and clinical research. MDACC is interested in working with novel and interesting new experimental oncology therapeutics offered by these Japanese companies. .

“It is expected that MDACC will be involved in the evaluation from the early discovery phase and smooth transition from preclinical development to early clinical development and clinical POC,” emphasizes Eita Kitayama, President of Boston Strategics. “We are also interested in exploring such drug development targets that an academic research institute has been working on for a period of time, or compounds that a pharmaceutical company has discarded to successfully regenerate them as a new development pipeline with a new strategy.”

Additionally, Boston Strategics has a Business Development model with a careful eye out for in-licensing opportunities for development. Commercial terms are flexible, including in-licensing compounds for full global commercial rights, joint (co-) development, buy-back potential after value added, and/or attractive royalties post-commercial approval in all or selected countries.

[Original article in Japanese; translated by Strategia]