BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

European mediation

New formats for PPPs to drive translational medicine in Europe

February 5, 2015 8:00 AM UTC

Europe is turning to a new model of public-private partnership to bridge its own translational gap - the chasm between the wealth of top biomedical research and the relative paucity of biotechs there compared with the U.S. in particular. The PPPs - and organizations that run them - operate as independent entities that mediate between companies, universities and government agencies, and have the extra brief of spinning out start-ups on top of the overall goal of accelerating drug development.Unlike the U.S., where the momentum for PPPs was sparked by pharmas looking for ways to access academic discoveries to help fill their early pipelines, the drive in Europe for PPPs has been led by national and local governments wishing to promote growth of the biotech sector.

The size and terms of the PPPs also differ between Europe and the U.S...