On Tuesday, February 4, 2014, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the launch of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP), an innovative public-private collaboration developed with guidance from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) over the last year and a half. AMP is the first systematic investment in understanding the biology of difficult-to-treat diseases that was designed from the start by industry, academic, and government partners working together. "Currently, we are investing too much money and time in avenues that don't pan out while patients and their families wait," said NIH director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. (image). "All sectors of the biomedical enterprise agree that this challenge is beyond the scope of any one sector, and it's time to work together in new ways to increase our collective odds of success." AMP -- cofounded by the NIH, ten leading pharmaceutical companies, and a number of nonprofit organizations -- will invest $230 million over five years to support the large-scale characterization of the underlying pathology of Alzheimer's disease, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus. BCG was pleased to have supported AMP's initial conception, organization design, and detailed research plans for each of the diseases targeted. "Too many hoped-for drugs fail during R&D, and the reason for this is that we don't fundamentally understand the biology we're trying to modify," said Michael Ringel, J.D., Ph.D., a BCG partner and co-leader of the firm's team facilitating the partnership.Login Or Register To Read Full Story