Their condition is a lifelong heavy burden and can even be life threatening, but the treatments available are generally the same as those offered to lower level cases. Now a large-scale international study, U-BIOPRED (Unbiased biomarkers for the prediction of respiratory disease outcomes), is pooling together expertise from many organisations involved in the disease, to move the research on severe asthma onto a new level.

The big issues relating to treatment can only be unlocked with more precise information about the different sub-categories of patients. Children seem to be affected differently to adults, for example, and even within groups of adults and groups of children vital differences are now emerging. Scientists involved in this project are building up a much more detailed picture of genetic information in each individual and measuring how this interacts with his/her environment to determine an individual ‘handprint’ of asthma triggering attacks and driving disease progression.

U-BIOPRED represents groundbreaking collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry, academia and patients’ groups. In the past, companies in this field have not shared the best information, due to commercial concerns, but they have also lost out on academic expertise as a result. Now commercial companies are recognising the value of animal models constructed by academic researchers, and their own data from patient cohorts and drug trials is proving invaluable to academics. This synergy of research knowledge and skills is working extremely well in this project.

Synergy between the partners is reinforced again by the active involvement of patients in several different areas. Patient groups are keeping the scientists well-grounded and practical, often bringing them back to basic questions that would make a huge difference to their day to day lives. They are part of the patient platform, the ethics board and the safety monitoring board, highlighting issues that they face personally and giving a totally new insight for the scientists, guiding them to the most important research questions.

The study is in the process of recruiting 1 000 patients in order to create a unique database of biological and clinical information to identify sub-groups and clusters of asthma cases. Seeing which genes are active in asthma is especially important as this is driven by the individual environments of patients. Having initially monitored all the cases for 18 months without intervening in their current treatment, the project will establish a reliable baseline for future experimental treatments.

Securing legal agreements between the partners from different sectors was very hard work and time-consuming, but perseverance at this stage has yielded far greater benefits and prospects. All the partners in U-BIOPRED now have a consortium agreement in place and this has unlocked a very profitable and satisfying way to work together.

Scientists from different commercial and academic backgrounds are somewhat released from their traditional affiliations and can get right to the heart of progressing science. It is quite a relief to dig deeply into core problems with scientists from other institutes around Europe. The industry partners have been particularly good at getting trials off the ground in quite short time periods, while the academic partners offer real expertise in identifying procedures and creating workable protocols.

The management board includes commercial companies and academics and has the final say in all matters, whether financial or organisational, giving strong leadership among such a diverse group of partners.

There have been some tough lessons too though. The project was seriously hampered for a while by one partner pulling out after being involved for over a year. It caused a setback in time for the remaining partners and risked a loss of funding, highlighting the need for the EU-Industry contact to be looked at more closely.

Background

The frightening facts on asthma:

• 300 million people worldwide suffer with asthma.
• Severe cases can become resistant to treatment, leaving sufferers very vulnerable.
• Only 6 % of drugs trialled up until now have actually been granted a licence.

U-BIOPRED is funded by a programme set up in 2008 by both the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) called the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). This partnership funds large-scale collaborative research, but it is also one of the first occasions where so many pharmaceutical companies are working together on the same project as partners and not as competitors