Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, OnDeckBiotech to Launch Open Access Research Platform

The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and the Boston-based software company OnDeckBiotech are launching a new open access platform with the purpose of creating an improved way to connect scientists with a virtual network of contract research organizations (CROs), drug development experts, and educational resources. The announcement was made on third day of the ADDF’s 15th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery.

The foundation is partnering with OnDeckBiotech in order to offer cutting-edge technology that helps to streamline links between researchers and CROs specializing in researching diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), as well as accelerating drug discovery research and development.

ADDF ACCESS will offer “improved functionality, with enhanced search capabilities to help researchers identify companies that provide specific services relevant to CNS drug discovery and development,” as explained by the foundation. The platform will also offer detailed profiles of featured CROs with information on platform technologies that may be important to CNS indications, opportunities to rate and review CROs, and a way of directly communicating with consultants and key personnel at CROs.

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The platform will also include project management tools meant to propitiate an easier distribution of requests for proposals (RFPs) to multiple vendors and ensure robust, competitive bids, such as RFP and contracting templates, and relationship history tracking data. It will also be possible to find “educational material to support CRO selection and program design, including recommendations for selecting and managing CRO contracts, and access to webinars from the ADDF’s Annual Drug Discovery for Neurodegeneration Conference.”

With the platform, the foundation expects to reduce the time and costs spent by researchers searching for vendors and evaluating them in the area of drug discovery and development. “By facilitating quality connections between scientists and top-tier drug discovery experts, ADDF ACCESS removes an enormous hurdle to undertaking drug discovery and development in academia and small biotechnology companies,” the foundation said in a statement.