Science Exchange Partners with Joint Pharma+Academic Consortium to Improve Research Reproducibility

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Science Exchange, the leading SaaS-enabled marketplace platform for outsourced R&D services, has partnered with the European Quality In Preclinical Data (EQIPD) consortium to launch a novel quality system for drug discovery and development research.

Supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative, EQIPD is the first quality system that can be applied to non-GLP research in both industry and academia. It puts forward 18 core requirements in categories such as research processes and data integrity.

The pharmaceutical industry is deeply invested in developing standards to improve the quality of preclinical data. Over the last decade, drug development has slowed significantly -- development time now averages over 8 years per new medical entity. A key bottleneck is the transition from preclinical to clinical research, because preclinical data, generated by multiple teams across industry, academia, and the public sector, are not of uniform quality. Enhancing the quality of preclinical data without impeding innovation can smooth this transition, helping pharmaceutical and biotech companies get therapeutics to patients faster.

In addition to Science Exchange, a reproducibility pioneer, the consortium brings together 28 more partners, including teams from 11 major pharmaceutical companies. Consortium members include Novartis, Roche, Abbvie, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen, Sanofi-Aventis, and UCB Biopharma.

“We have a lot of external collaborations, and we’d like to have reliable data -- data we can take decisions on. This is why big pharma is so interested in this consortium,” said Dr, Thomas Steckler, EQIPD Project Leader, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, in a video introduction to the project.

“As part of the EQIPD consortium, we are advancing our mission to accelerate breakthrough discovery and development,” explained Elizabeth Iorns, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of Science Exchange and co-founder of several other reproducibility projects. “Unlike current regulatory frameworks, such as GLP, the EQIPD system addresses key barriers to reproducibility while still giving scientists the flexibility they need to innovate.”

Research organizations seeking to formally implement the EQIPD quality system and receive accreditation should contact Science Exchange. We can advise on next steps and put you in contact with the EQIPD accrediting team; details can be found at https://blog.scienceexchange.com/2020/10/eqipd/.

About Science Exchange

Science Exchange enables scientists to catalyze faster discovery and development by removing barriers from the outsourced R&D workflow. We are passionate about building transformative software solutions that help accelerate discovery and that ultimately improve lives. The Science Exchange stack of solutions improves R&D speed, innovation, flexibility, and auditability. Our source-to-pay tools boost scientists' productivity by removing administrative tasks and delays associated with sourcing, establishing and managing projects with external service providers. With our enterprise SaaS-enabled marketplace product, R&D teams can rapidly work with the Science Exchange Contracted™ network of 3,300 CROs, CMOs, and academic labs, without the need for CDAs, MTAs or other time-consuming legal documents. Our clients include some of the world’s largest biopharmas and hundreds of biotechs, who have been increasing productivity through simple and lean outsourcing processes.

Since 2011, Science Exchange has raised more than $70 million from Norwest Venture Partners, Maverick Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Windham Ventures, OATV, the YC Continuity Fund, and others.

Learn why scientists rave about how Science Exchange is transforming their discovery and development at www.scienceexchange.com. Connect with us at www.linkedin.com/company/science-exchange and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/scienceexchange.