A group of leaders from New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford (Calif.) University are calling for academic medical centers to rethink their well-established model of drug discovery and development to stay competitive with an emerging rival: China.
In an article published April 28 in the Harvard Business Review, the group outlines the significant progress China has made in pharmaceutical research and development, as well as what AMCs in the U.S. can do to retain ground amid what the authors call a “once-in-a-century” dilemma.
“AMCs cannot wait for Washington to act,” the viewpoint authors wrote. “They must boldly experiment with new structures for accelerating innovation while maintaining fidelity to their tripartite mission.”
Authors of the viewpoint are Anaeze Offodile II, MD, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Kushal Kadakia, MD, resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital; Yashodhara Dash, MD, vice president of entrepreneurship and commercialization at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Whitney Snider, MD, managing partner of MSK Ventures; Joseph Wu, MD, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and the Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Stanford University; and Selwyn Vickers, MD, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
China has increased its investment in pharmaceutical research and development by 641% over the past decade. Deals with China accounted for more than one-third of all large-cap pharmaceutical licensing deals in 2025, representing a thirteenfold increase in three years.
This growth is due to more than 1,000 clinical trial centers receiving accreditation over the past decade and an increase in multiregional trials, which support concurrent approvals and generalizable patient data. China now presents pharmaceutical partners with clinical trial options that are “approximately 40% less expensive, 50% faster and offer greater patient enrollment,” than other countries, the authors wrote.
The viewpoint offers five strategic elements to rethink the long-term sustainability of the current AMC-led pathway of pharmaceutical research and development:
- Embrace a new drug development model, such as Stanford’s Innovative Medicines Accelerator, which acts as a “superhighway” for in-house drug development.
- Integrate emerging technologies such as AI and robotic automation to streamline manual process-heavy workflows.
- Launch strategic partnerships to unlock the value of AI under governance frameworks that assess organizational risk and ensure patient safety.
- Extend AMC research investments beyond early stage science through strategic financing as well as funding through venture partnerships.
- Engage in global research collaborations, such as the U.S.-Australia Alliance for Cancer Research and Treatment, to increase patient enrollment, avoid duplicative testing and reduce operational costs.
Read the full viewpoint here.
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