AstraZeneca, Pfizer take part in Alzheimer’s data sharing coalition

AstraZeneca, Lilly, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are among the companies taking part in a new initiative to share clinical research data on the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

The Coalition Against Major Diseases (CAMD), the members of which also include Novartis and Sanofi-aventis, has released a new database of more than 4,000 Alzheimer’s patients who have participated in 11 industry-sponsored clinical trials.

It represents the first ever combined clinical trial database to be openly shared between pharmaceutical companies, as well as being available for study by qualified international researchers.

The coalition hopes that this database will allow new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases to be developed and submitted for regulatory approval more easily.

Dr Frank Casty, vice-president for technical evaluations at AstraZeneca and co-director of CAMD, said: “A healthier world must come from collaboration, in making better, deeper connections with all our stakeholders, and sharing skills and ideas to meet a common goal – improved health.”

The CAMD initiative is led and managed by the not-for-profit Critical Path Institute, which was founded in 2005 by the University of Arizona and the US Food and Drug Administration to encourage the development of new medical products.

To date, it has received more than $20 million (13.5 million pounds) in grants and $10 million in contributions to help fund its work.