Two dispatches this week from the annals of Big Pharma’s efforts to reverse the 90-percent failure rate of clinical trials at Phase 2.

Bloomberg reports on the Target Discovery Institute, a new effort of Oxford University in concert with eight major pharmaceutical companies to identify better targets for drug development:

By collaborating with Oxford University on the project the drugmakers are seeking to eliminate development of drugs targeting the wrong biological pathways, thereby cutting out billions of dollars of research spending. Once a target has been successfully identified and validated, pharmaceutical companies can compete to develop medicines that manipulate those targets, Bountra said.

Meanwhile, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News tells the story of new efforts by drugmakers to forge connections with patient communities that go beyond product marketing. The holistic focus is being driven by the establishment of the private, nonprofit Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) as part of Obamacare, as well as other federal efforts such as faster FDA reviews:

 “A number of companies are doing self-assessments to look at where they engage, when and how, and start to look at what might be a strategy from beginning to end, with an eye towards shortening the process and making better products,” [Marc] Boutin, [J.D., executive vp and COO for the National Health Council], said. “It really requires a cultural shift within the researchers and within the organizations. And it requires that multiple silos within any pharmaceutical company have to come together and figure out what is that strategy going to be.”

Remember, patients and their loved ones have a critical role to play in increasing the speed and effectiveness of clinical trials, too. Register with Fox Trial Finder today and become one of thousands of volunteers ready, willing and able to play a part in Parkinson’s research.