The precompetitive space: time to move the yardsticks.

Industry, government, patient advocacy groups, public funders, and academic thought leaders met in Toronto, Canada, to set into motion an initiative that addresses some of the scientific and organizational challenges of modern therapeutics discovery. What emerged from the meeting was a public-private partnership that seeks to establish proof of clinical mechanism (POCM) for selected "pioneer" disease targets using lead compounds-all accomplished in the precompetitive space. The group will reconvene in April 2011 to create a business plan that specifies the generation of two positive POCM results per year.