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* GSK links with Sanger Institute, European Bioinformatics
* New centre focused on target validation for new drugs
* Latest example of pre-competitive collaboration in R&D
By Ben Hirschler
LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline islinking with two top bioscience centres on an open-accessresearch project to tap into "big data" generated by generesearch, in a move highlighting how drug companies are learningto share.
The new public-private Centre for Therapeutic TargetValidation (CTTV) is being created by GSK working alongside theWellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the European BioinformaticsInstitute, both of which are based in Cambridge, England.
The three founders said on Thursday they hoped to attractinterest from other companies and academic institutions overtime.
"I fully expect others to join," Patrick Vallance, GSK'shead of pharmaceuticals research and development, told Reuters."But it seemed sensible to get started right away rather thanspend two or three years trying to get lots of other peopleinvolved."
Rapid advances in genome sequencing have led to almost dailyadvances in understanding how genetics can affect diseaseprogression, creating a bewildering array of options fordevelopers of new drugs.
As a result, there is a growing trend among pharmaceuticalcompanies to become more open about sharing early-stage - orpre-competitive - research work, rather than keeping theirscience locked up behind high walls.
Ewan Birney, the interim head of the CTTV, said thepre-competitive nature of the new centre was "critical" to itssuccess.
The hope is that better target validation - which involvesdefining the role of biological processes in diseases beforedeveloping a new medicine - will improve success rates in thehigh-cost world of drug discovery.
At present, some 90 percent of experimental compoundsentering clinical trials fail in those tests, often because thebasic biology is poorly understood.
That creates a big incentive for companies to workcollaboratively in the early stages of drug research, accordingto Vallance, who believes there is still plenty of scope forfirms to differentiate themselves later on.
"If you can double the base knowledge then you've de-riskedthings enormously, though you've still got to make yourjudgement in your invention," he said. "It is not going to giveyou all the answers but it is going to increase the chance ofgetting it right."
Other pre-competitive collaborative ventures include theInnovative Medicines Initiative, a European Union-backed projectto speed drug development, and the Structural GenomicsConsortium, which works on protein structures.
The CTTV project aims to address a wide range of humandiseases and will seek to publish important findings inscientific journals, as well as routinely sharing gene sequencedata and information with the wider scientific community.
The venture will be supported by around 50 researchers drawnfrom the three founding organisations and will be based on theWellcome Trust campus in Cambridge.
GSK is making a "multi-million pound" contribution to fundinitial projects. The company declined to be more specific onhow much money it was putting in. (Editing by Anthony Barker)
