The Life Sciences Consortium (LSC) was formed in 2005 by the CEO Roundtable on Cancer as a means of bringing together leading oncology pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies to build collaboration that enables a transformation in research and development activities that will deliver more effective oncology therapies to patients faster. This collaboration focuses on solving issues common to all cancer companies engaged in drug discovery and development that cannot be solved by any single company alone.
Specific tactics include:
- Developing various standards across the life sciences industry to expedite the R&D process,
- Providing a common voice speaking out for cancer research companies, including pharma, biotech, diagnostics and research services,
- Developing a pre-competitive R&D collaboration by helping to establish special project teams to fund and execute specific research initiatives, and
- Addressing various challenges associated with the development of novel agents and individualized medicines for the treatment and prevention of cancer.
A recent outcome of the creation of the LSC has been to forge a partnership with the National Cancer Institute to develop common clinical trial standards with the research intensive pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and, in this way, to hasten the discovery and delivery of novel and improved therapies for cancer patients. This unique, collaborative effort was prompted in part by research demonstrating there are numerous opportunities to remove non value-added steps and save time in launching clinical trials. This led to the formation of Standard Terms of Agreement for Research Trial (START) Clauses. The end result in creating common standards and efficiencies is the potential to save not only time, but patient lives, as life-lengthening and life-saving therapies can then more quickly get to cancer patients who need them.