Research collaborations between universities and corporations are not always perfectly constructed or designed from the start. And just as a start-up company often needs to evolve, pivot, and iterate, so too do industry-academic partnerships in many cases — a point made clear by the relationship that’s growing and evolving between Vanderbilt University and Incyte Corp.
Incyte, an oncology drug discovery company, says its research relationships with academia are not necessarily pegged to a specific outcome; rather, it’s the connection itself that is of primary importance.
Incyte first announced a multi-year research support and collaboration agreement with the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2015. The company agreed to fund certain aspects of Vanderbilt’s cancer research activities as a way to “develop an improved understanding of basic cancer biology and the mechanisms of action of certain Incyte proprietary compounds.” In addition, Incyte said it hoped to “develop novel approaches to patient selection.”
Later that year, executives and researchers from Incyte huddled with Vandy investigators at a Nashville retreat, where school reps touted its large-scale phase 1 clinical trials program and the pharma company said “the competition to be the first to get to a certain point [with new therapies] is certainly higher than it has ever been.” The pair then announced a three-year grant under which researchers work together to test “several potent compounds” that appear promising for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Vandy’s Michael Savona, MD, associate professor of medicine and director of the Hematology Early Therapeutics Program at VICC, is principal investigator on the grant.
Now, reports Reid Huber, PhD, Incyte’s chief scientific officer, the Vanderbilt-Incyte Research Alliance has expanded again, with a new grant program to fund qualified faculty as they study issues related to ideal therapeutic intervention points, drug resistance, and patient selection models associated with Incyte’s drug development program.