Collaboration in Healthcare - Strategic Focus & Partnerships

For us, partnering is a key element in delivering meaningful therapies to patients with unmet medical needs. To complement our company's own R&D efforts, we collaborate with strategic partners to source new compounds, gain access to the latest technology platforms, and develop novel therapeutics for patients.

Our goal is to craft a pipeline that is a mix of both internal and externally-sourced assets that are in line with the company’s growth goals and strategically fit with both commercial and developmental strengths.

Independent from our therapeutic areas of focus, we’re consciously agnostic of the source of assets that can enrich our global commercial and regional portfolio. The focus is first and foremost on the quality and potential benefit these assets can bring to patients. We consider all opportunities that have the potential to create value using innovative deal structures and creative alliances.

We are particularly interested in opportunities that will support our strategic business areas.

Our R&D groups in Oncology focus on a balanced portfolio of innovative targets as well as more established approaches. These groups are organized around five Innovation Clusters:

• Oncogenic signaling
• Antibody-Drug Conjugates
• DNA Damage & Repair
• Tumor Stress & Plasticity

We actively search and evaluate technologies, preclinical and clinical assets that are able to support and strengthen our Innovation Clusters, and have clear differentiation potential.

Our search space includes antibodies against tumor antigens suitable for antibody-drug conjugation or pro-drug approaches for antibody therapeutics, as well as differentiated bi-specific platform technologies and antibody/protein scaffolds. Selective small molecule assets with well-defined molecular targets that show anti-tumor activity in specific contexts are also a priority, such as those with a proven synthetic lethality relationship in the area of DNA damage and repair, or those controlling tumorigenic metabolic networks in particular cancer genotypes.

In addition to preclinical and clinical assets, we are also interested in biomarker and technology platforms for the advancement of cancer therapies.

Global Business Development (GBD) & External Innovation (EI) work closely together to broaden our access to the world of scientific innovation. Please contact the GBD team in case you are looking for a partner post clinical Proof of Concept. Please contact the EI team for proposal in the pre-clinical and early clinical space up to clinical Proof of Concept.

Our focus in Immuno-Oncology is on actively stimulating the immune system, eliminating inhibitory mechanisms and targeting cancer stem cells. The Biopharma Immuno-Oncology strategy is based on four Innovation Clusters:

• Target “hot” tumors (high level of immune infiltration) and overcome resistance
• Target tumor myeloid and stromal factors
• Target “cold” tumors (low level of immune infiltration) to make them “hot”
• Identify novel resistance pathways

Our search space targeting “hot” tumors includes approaches on T-cell activation and co-stimulation, immune checkpoints beyond PD-1/PD-L1, or metabolic suppression. Profiling of tumor myeloid cells to find novel targets, new ways to inhibit myeloid suppressor cells (MDSC) and enhance macrophage and dendritic cell activity are also of interest to us. New routes to turn “cold” tumors into “hot” tumors may include combination approaches with Antibody-Drug-Conjugate or DNA-repair inhibitors, as well as immunocytokines and T-cell or NK cell re-directed therapies.

In addition to preclinical and clinical assets, we are also interested in biomarker and technology platforms for the advancement of cancer immunotherapies.

Global Business Development (GBD) & External Innovation (EI) work closely together to broaden our access to the world of scientific innovation. Please contact the GBD team in case you are looking for a partner post clinical Proof of Concept. Please contact the EI team for proposal in the pre-clinical and early clinical space up to clinical Proof of Concept.

Our focus is the development of best-in-disease therapeutics in autoimmune diseases, with particular interest in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Lupus Nephritis (LN) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) inclusive of agents with the potential to induce immune tolerance/restore immune homeostasis. Additional areas of interest include neurodegenerative diseases in which neuroinflammation is a key pathological driver such as Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO), Myasthenia Gravis (MG), for products with a highly differentiated profile relative to those in the market or undergoing development.

For autoimmune disorders, exemplified by SLE and LN, we are interested in biologics (e.g. monoclonal or bispecific antibodies; fusion proteins, with potential for sub-cutaneous delivery), orally bioavailable small molecule agents with superior drug-like profiles (e.g. half-life, onset/duration of action, limited undesirable off-target profiles), or targeted therapies including novel anti-body drug conjugates, either in early, mid or late stage development. Our interest also extends to novel targets with strong and differentiated validation and with a well-established preclinical profile, precision medicine/patient stratification approaches and novel drug discovery platform technologies. 

Global Business Development (GBD) & External Innovation (EI) work closely to broaden our access to the world of scientific innovation.

As a world leader in fertility treatment, and aspiring to be an integrated fertility treatment partner we develop and provide innovative products, devices and support services to help infertile couples at every stage of the fertility treatment cycle, from follicular development to early pregnancy.

We actively search and evaluate preclinical and clinical assets and technologies that are able to support and strengthen our aspiration for innovation, and have clear differentiation potential.

Our search space includes innovative developments in the field of IVF, drug assets, IVF lab diagnostics solutions, as well as Artificial Intelligence technologies.

Our purpose is to bring better health to every single cardiometabolic and endocrine patient, helping them to live their life to its full potential. We must address chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, growth hormone disorders or hypothyroidism, in view of their impact on health and society. Through our leading and affordable portfolio, ‘beyond the pill’ solutions and partnerships, we are helping to improve awareness, diagnosis, treatment and adherence of these diseases.

Every day, some 70 million patients across the globe use our trusted medicines like Glucophage® and Glucovance® (Diabetes); Concor® (Cardiovascular); Euthyrox® (Thyroids) or Saizen® (Growth hormone deficiency). Our long-lasting and successful presence in Emerging Markets is based on strong local commercial and medical infrastructure as well as continued investment in our established brands.

We want to fuel additional growth via branded portfolio expansion and meet regional and global commercial needs. We strive to offer patients and physicians products, solutions and services that address unmet medical and patient needs in:

• Cardiovascular Disease
  • Hypertension
  • Chronic Heart Failure
  • Coronary Heart Diseases
  • Hyperlipidaemia

• Type 2 Diabetes
  

• Obesity   

• Thyroid Disorders

• Pediatric Growth Hormone Deficiency
  
  
• Service & digital solutions at Point-of-Care that create value beyond the product

We actively search and evaluate technologies across all Healthcare Franchises in the areas of:

• Platform technologies such as new molecular approaches for targeted therapeutics in the field of targeted protein degradation, immune-cell engager, and targeting RNA via small molecules
  

We are also interested in new molecular platforms that complement our existing bispecific- and antibody-drug-conjugate programs:

• Manufacturing technologies that allow us to produce our SME and NBE drug products more efficiently
• Precision medicine technologies, such as companion diagnostics that allow us to identify and select patient population during the development and commercialization phase of a drug 
• Digital (AI-based) data technologies to advance our abilities to mine various data sources and generate insights out of such data for drug-discovery and – development purposes, biomarker discovery activities, and the commercial positioning of our drug products 

We are also looking for access to large scale multi-omics datasets in the area of oncology and immuno-oncology, including licensing already generated insights such as predictive biomarker signatures that support us in our drug development efforts Tools that support our drug discovery efforts to design molecules in silico and help us to modify large sets of molecules in an orchestrated fashion:

• Lab technologies, such as unique culture systems to assess drug effects on tumor-crosstalk as well as single-cell analytic approaches to investigate tumor heterogeneity and drug resistance
• Novel screening technologies for SMEs, and ultra-high throughput clonal and functional screening platforms for NBEs
• New approaches for advanced drug-delivery for SMEs and NBEs, covering both, devices and novel drug delivery technologies.
• Fast and non-destructive analytics
• Academic partnerships with world-class research institutions to collaborate in advancing our drug discovery and -development programs

We have dedicated ourselves to improving access to health in underserved populations with a focus on infectious diseases – especially malaria and schistosomiasis. Here we can contribute the competencies we have acquired from working at the interface of medicines, chemicals and diagnostics.

For most of these diseases, young children are the most vulnerable age group needing a suitable treatment. The goal is to develop innovative and integrated health solutions (drugs, diagnostics, medical devices, vector controls and digital health tools) for the most vulnerable populations in developing countries.

We are regularly reviewing our development candidate portfolio and are actively seeking partnerships for assets that we have strategically deprioritized. Such assets are typically in the late stage-preclinical / early-stage clinical development stage and fall in the areas of oncology, immuno-oncology, and immunology.

We are open to discuss partnering proposals with pharma- and biotech organizations to license such assets, but are also open to build new companies around such assets with VC/PE investors.

As a global science driven pharmaceutical company, we are dedicated to not only research, develop and commercialize our therapeutics worldwide, but also to source innovation and collaborate on a global scale. While the technology and therapeutic area specific contacts named above are located either at our Darmstadt headquarters or the Boston R&D site, we have specific Asia Pacific representatives located in Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo. They are the first point of contact for any partnership proposals from the Asia Pacific region and will facilitate the interaction with the global expert teams.

Ensuring our alliances are supported by the right teams with the right resources is a priority for us. Our focus is on:

• Maximizing the value of the alliance for both partners, and reducing the risk of failure
• Resolving issues in advance in the best interest of the projects
• Providing a lead alliance governance structure
• Monitoring whether the legal framework of current alliances still reflect the initial objectives in light of the environmental changes
• New Opportunities: Identifying new opportunities with current partners

With a dedicated team within R&D working closely with Global Business Development, we scout and evaluate external opportunities, including technologies, pre-clinical and early clinical assets in Oncology, Immuno-Oncology, and Immunology across all geographies.