ALS Study Shows Social Media's Value as Research Tool

This article published in today's WSJ provides an important support for a new paradigm in clinical development. Although there were significant shortcomings, which would be obvious to anyone familiar with drug development process, the table at the end of the story is self explanatory. It does not take a financial guru to see what the advantage will be if you manage to save so much time and money in the process as this trial achieved, while introducing proper scientific scrutiny. This is what Transparency Life Sciences is about.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704489604576283010994997034.html?mod=djemHL_t

Open Source Biology Deserves a Shot

an interesting piece about even more interesting initiative...

http://www.xconomy.com/national/2011/04/11/open-source-biology-deserves-a-shot/

Fierce Biotech on Transparency LS: Necessity driving leery pharma "open"

April 4, 2011 — 7:30am ET | By George Miller 

Read more: Necessity driving leery pharma "open" - FierceBiotechIT http://www.fiercebiotechit.com/story/necessity-driving-leery-pharma-open/2011-04-04?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1IeSnbDHB 

Subscribe: http://www.fiercebiotechit.com/signup?sourceform=Viral-Tynt-FierceBiotechIT-FierceBiotechITPHOENIX -- It's almost as if the topic were taboo: the open-source concept in drug development gets little play in the agenda at the Partnerships in Clinical Trials conference. The topic had a way of coming up, though.

When it comes to open-source drug R&D, "the clinical side is the conservative side," says Ken Getz, senior research fellow at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. But the downturn in the economy has stimulated thinking among big pharmas.

"A cultural shift is happening as companies downsize in some cases," he says. Success in open-source development efforts, perhaps first in translational medicine, "will lead to changes that are profound," says Getz.

Let's hope so. "This is an industry in deep, deep crisis," says Tomasz Sablinski, managing director at Celtic Therapeutics and the chief force behind Transparency Life Sciences, a fledgling open-source drug development enterprise. "It's not going to be saved by tweaking."

He says pharma's increasing use of outsourcing is merely a shifting of money within the same financially inefficient system. "Pharma is unhappy now; CROs are happy," he says. "CROs will become unhappy."

Sablinsky's open-source idea, as we've reported, involves contributions of compounds, computer code and drug development expertise as well as collaborations with patient-engagement web sites like Cure Together and use of telemedicine apps for clinical trial monitoring.

Clearly the idea is gaining some traction in drug development. Open-source clinical trial software OpenClinica, maintained by Akaza Research, now boasts more than 11,000 users. That's a 10-percent rise from last July, when the company announced a three-fold increase over the previous two years. 

Read more: Necessity driving leery pharma "open" - FierceBiotechIT http://www.fiercebiotechit.com/story/necessity-driving-leery-pharma-open/2011-04-04?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1IeSOkUv6
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