Who’s Going to Pay for Future Drug Development? (Part 2) | Xconomy

"The open source movement has flowed from software to scientific journals (e.g. PLoS, the Public Library of Science) and biomedical research (e.g. Sage Bionetworks). Much of the funding for the open source movement has come from philanthropic investments and government resources, but it also includes income from collaborative research partnerships as well as traditional grant support. Sage Bionetworks, for example, has just announced an oncology partnership with AstraZeneca. The question has been posed as to whether open source research and development can reinvigorate drug research. It has certainly stimulated thinking about novel ways to do drug discovery research. Transparency Life Sciences is in the process of being launched to do open-source drug development using telemedicine apps for clinical trial monitoring. Open source resources include the National Cancer Institute’s Biomedical Information Grid that allows cancer researchers to work together. A recent commentary pointed out the open source research will be facilitated by the creation of standards for different types of research data. This approach will enable a wider spectrum of users to access these large datasets. The Biobricks Foundation is a nonprofit group focused on coordinating the production of DNA “modules” encoding basic biological functions or structures. These modules can be combined in a synthetic biology approach towards engineering novel proteins. The P2P Foundation hosts some interesting discussions on the concept of open source biotechnology, with links to projects that both the public and private sector can tap in to...."