GSK and Francis Crick partner in discovery

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has partnered with the Francis Crick Institute on an open science collaboration, the aim of which is to forge new scientific discoveries.

GSK and the Francis Crick Institute, the UK’s newest biomedical research facility, will contribute in-kind resources, including laboratory space and the scientific expertise of 20 staff. GSK will also provide access to its non-development compound library, key antibodies, reagents and technologies, which will be used to address key questions in disease biology.

A number of projects within this collaboration exploring diseases including HIV, malaria and cancer are expected to start in 2015, with a further 10–15 projects expected in 2016.

This is the first alliance to be established between the Francis Crick Institute and a pharmaceutical company.

Michael Gavey at Simmons & Simmons, the law firm advising GSK, said: “We are proud to have assisted GSK on this groundbreaking collaboration. Open science presents opportunities and challenges, and it is causing academia and industry to think outside their traditional collaborative models.”