| RESEARCH |
GSK Adds External R&D Management Unit RICK MULLIN GlaxoSmithKline is expanding its "centers of excellence" framework for research and development with the creation of the Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD). Gowen GLAXOSMITHKLINE PHOTO GSK's six current centers of excellence for drug discovery (CEDD) each coordinate in-house research assets on specific therapeutic categories, such as cardiovascular or respiratory disease. CEEDD will work across all therapeutic areas coordinating GSK's research and drug development partnerships. CEEDD, which will be headed by Maxine Gowen, will take charge of collaborations with industry and academic researchers that have been managed under GSK's Alternative Discovery Initiative, according to GSK. It will establish dedicated research groups for each partnership and assign specific goals for developing compounds on each project. CEEDD will draw on front-end resources of the CEDDs, accessing compounds and targets discovered by GSK for which the firm lacks readily available internal development resources. In addition, the company says CEEDD is intended to give GSK access to alternative scientific and drug discovery approaches through collaborative arrangements with partners. Gowen, formerly the director of GSK's department of bone and cartilage biology, most recently held the position of president of SR One, the drug firm's venture-capital business (C&EN, Oct. 13, 2003, page 23). "I am very pleased that Maxine will lead the CEEDD," says Moncef Slaoui, GSK's senior vice president of worldwide business development. "Her established scientific and business acumen will be key to the success." |
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