"All too often, a good innovation ends up gathering dust on a shelf"

Promising dementia research that never makes it into clinical practice: sadly, this is often the reality. Public-private partnerships can turn the tide. How? Saartje Burgmans from DEMPACT explains more.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in dementia research mean that, as a researcher, you enter into a long-term partnership with private companies. Is this necessary? Often it is, says Saartje Burgmans, Impactmanager Business-development at DEMPACT. “All too often, a good innovation ends up on the shelf because there is a lack of expertise, financial resources and time to bring it to the end user.” One way to overcome this is to seek collaboration with companies.

A Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is when a company contributes ideas and collaborates on your research over the long term, with a common goal and shared responsibility. It is contractually agreed that risks, costs and returns are shared. This therefore goes beyond simply purchasing a service or product from a private party. Burgmans: “Even if a company makes a financial contribution without any further substantive involvement, that is not a PPP, but falls under sponsorship.”

Involvement in the form of public-private partnerships (PPPs) is often necessary, as research consortia are generally strong at development but less so at implementation, commercialisation and scaling up. “They aren’t set up for that either,” says Burgmans. “Once an innovation has been validated, things often come to a standstill.”

Valley of death

The result is a significant gap between the moment something is ready for implementation and the moment it actually becomes available in practice to the people who need it. “In business terms, this is also known as the ‘valley of death’,” explains Burgmans. “The gap between a working prototype and the point at which a product becomes financially viable.”

Bridging the gap

Effective collaboration between businesses and researchers can help bridge that ‘valley’. Burgmans: “Businesses can complement your knowledge with their understanding of the market. They know how to scale up and implement solutions, and understand what a funding model looks like.”

A public-private partnership combines scientific knowledge with market knowledge, product development, funding and implementation expertise. As a result, PPPs not only provide insight into whether something works, but also into how it actually reaches patients and healthcare professionals. “That is precisely why PPPs are often seen as an important tool for bridging the ‘valley of death’ between research and practice,” emphasises Burgmans.

Funding bodies recognise the importance of such collaboration. That is why they often impose specific funding conditions relating to PPPs: as a researcher, you will only receive funding if you seek to collaborate with private sector partners. The advantage is that they are then involved in planning the implementation right from the start of a project.

Sound legal agreements

That said, this early collaboration is certainly challenging. “Trust in each other’s integrity isn’t always there from the outset,” says Burgmans. “As a researcher, you want to remain independent and not be guided by a company’s interests.” In addition, there are also differences in working methods, language, timelines and needs. “That requires a great deal of coordination and sound legal agreements,” says Burgmans.

And even once you’ve established a good partnership, the work isn’t over. Burgmans: “You then need to monitor closely to ensure the partnership remains beneficial for all parties and doesn’t become unbalanced.”

Not doomed

Is research without a public-private partnership (PPP) then doomed to fail? “Not at all,” Burgmans clarifies. “Many innovations do not require a private partner.” However, the implementation of innovations that need to be commercialised is considerably more difficult if a private partner has not been brought on board at an early stage. “And if you try to enter into a partnership later on in your research, or only after your research has finished, in order to get your innovation to the right customers, you’ll face delays.”

No official figures are available for the Dutch market. However, worldwide, only a limited proportion of proven interventions ultimately make it into routine care. Burgmans: “Sometimes the innovation does find its way into your own university hospital, but it doesn’t spread beyond that. This may be due to a lack of funding, time or manpower.” It may also be that the innovation has been developed and implemented, but simply does not meet users’ needs. “Take, for example, an app that fails to catch on because the target group does not use smartphones. Implementation delays of more than ten years are no exception,” says Burgmans.

Equal partnership

A real-world example where a public-private partnership (PPP) works well is the sustainable and equal collaboration between Amsterdam UMC and the biotech company Fujirebio Europe. Among other things, they are working together within the ABOARD consortium to develop new biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. A great deal of trust has now been built up within this long-standing relationship. Burgmans: “A great deal of effort has also been put into getting the contracts right here. As a result, responsibilities are clearly defined and there is no ambiguity regarding the distribution of costs, benefits and revenues. And the independence of the research is guaranteed.”

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