Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation
The Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation provides a unique platform for dialogue and collaboration among thought leaders in government, academia, industry, foundations, and disease and patient advocacy. The Forum serves as a hub and a catalyst for nurturing new ideas and partnerships and offers a neutral space for stakeholders to advance critical policy discussions on biopharmaceutical innovation nationally and globally.
In progress
Any project, supported or not by a committee, that is currently being worked on or is considered active, and will have an end date.
"Advancing a clinical trials enterprise that is more efficient, effective, patient-centered, and integrated into the health delivery system."
Revolutionary advances in biomedical research and technology present new and exciting opportunities for the discovery and development (R&D) of new therapies for patients. The evolution of health care is expanding possibilities for integration of clinical research into the continuum of clinical care and new approaches are enabling the collection of data in real-world settings. Innovative modalities, such as digital health technologies and artificial intelligence applications, can now be leveraged to overcome challenges and advance clinical research. The forum unites key stakeholders to identify opportunities, address bottlenecks, and spur innovation in drug discovery, development, and translation.
Examples of forum activities:
• Defining and Evaluating In-Home Drug Disposal Systems for Opioid Analgesics – A Workshop
• Applying Lessons Learned from COVID-19 Research and Development to Future Epidemics – A Workshop
• The Role of Digital Health Technologies in Drug Development – A Workshop
• Virtual Clinical Trials: Challenges and Opportunities – A Workshop
• Examining the Impact of Real-World Evidence on Medical Product Development – A Workshop Series
There is much greater awareness around the need for more person-centered approaches that prioritize lived experience, and justice in the discovery, development, and translation of new treatments. The forum seeks to center priorities of people living with disease and those who have been traditionally excluded from the clinical trials enterprise, advance the science of patient input, and help bring to fruition innovations that better address the needs of patients.
Examples of forum activities:
• Listening Sessions: Community Practices Engaging in Clinical Trials – An Action Collaborative
• Inclusion of Pregnant and Lactating Persons in Clinical Trials - A Workshop
• Innovation in Drug Research and Development for Prevalent Chronic Diseases - A Workshop
• Drug Research and Development for Adults Across the Older Age Span - A Workshop
The forum provides a neutral platform for communication and collaboration across sectors and disciplines to better harmonize efforts throughout the drug R&D life cycle. It does this by convening a broad and evolving set of stakeholders to help integrate patients, caregivers, researchers, trialists, community practitioners, sponsors, regulators, payers, patient groups, and others into the continuum of research and clinical care. The forum also strives to enable shared decision-making and ensure that patients have input into research questions, researchers have insight into clinical practice, and practitioners are engaged in the clinical trials enterprise.
Examples of forum activities:
• Optimizing Public–Private Partnerships for Clinical Cancer Research – A Workshop
• Enhancing Scientific Reproducibility through Transparent Reporting – A Workshop
• Mapping and Connecting the Biomedical Innovation Ecosystem – An Action Collaborative
The forum has fostered the development of strategies to improve the discipline of innovative regulatory science and continues to focus on building a workforce that is adaptable and resilient. Considerable opportunities remain to improve and expand the evolving clinical trials workforce and infrastructure, integrate community-based practices, and engage early-career scientists and clinicians in drug discovery, development, and translation. The forum will continue to anticipate and promote adaptation to changes in the infrastructure of health care delivery.
Examples of forum activities:
• Preparing the Future Workforce in Drug Research and Development – A Workshop
• Challenges and a Way Forward in Sharing Clinical Trial Data – A Workshop
• Clinical Trial Site Standards Harmonization – An Action Collaborative
• Strengthening a Workforce for Innovative Regulatory Science in Therapeutics Development – A Workshop
Our mission
This forum provides a neutral venue for people working in government, academia, industry, foundations, patient groups, and other non-profits to highlight critical issues, spur cross-sector collaboration, and inspire action towards improving the system of drug discovery, development, and translation.
Forum-hosted public workshops, action collaboratives, and meetings focus on critical issues and practical approaches for advancing a clinical trials enterprise that is more efficient, effective, patient-centered, and integrated into the health delivery system.
The forum membership includes leaders from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, industry – including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and digital health companies, academia, consortia, foundations, journals, and patient groups. Forum participants work together to highlight critical issues, share information, find common ground, and facilitate collaboration. View members.
Forums create communal environments to foster dialogue across sectors and institutions. Although forums do not produce solutions themselves, they illuminate issues that need to be resolved, and opportunities for further work often developed from meetings, workshops, and publications. For example, the activities of a forum may result in the establishment of separate consensus study committee.
Unlike a consensus study committee, which publishes a report with conclusions and recommendations, a forum may not issue work with such advice.
The forum brings together leaders from private sector sponsors of biomedical and clinical research, federal agencies sponsoring and regulating biomedical and clinical research, digital health technologists, the academic community, and patients, and in doing so serves to educate the policy community about issues where science and policy intersect.
Contact us to learn more about how to engage with the forum:
Description
The Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation (the Forum) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) was created in 2005 by the National Academies Board on Health Sciences Policy. The Forum provides a unique platform for dialogue and collaboration among thought leaders and stakeholders in government, academia, industry, foundations, and disease and patient advocacy with an interest in improving the system of drug discovery, development, and translation, educating the policy community about issues where biomedical science and policy intersect.
Members of the Forum convene several times each year to identify, discuss, and act on key problems and strategies in the discovery, development, and translation of drugs. To supplement the perspectives and expertise of its members, the Forum holds public workshops to focus substantial public attention on critical areas of drug discovery and development. Proceedings of these meetings are disseminated to the public. In addition, the Forum commissions or fosters the development of papers to explore scientific and policy issues on selected topics. The Forum also fosters collaborations among its members and constituencies.
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Sponsors
Amgen Inc
Apricity Health, Inc.
Association of American Medical Colleges
Biogen
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Critical Path Institute
Eli Lilly and Company
FasterCures, Milken Institute
Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
Johnson & Johnson
Medable
Merck & Co., Inc.
New England Journal of Medicine
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Sanofi
Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Staff
Shalini Singaravelu
Christa Nairn
Major units and sub-units
Center for Health, People, and Places
Lead
Biomedical and Health Sciences Program Area
Lead