Pharmaceutical Firms Widen Search for Medicines

." Among Dhanak's moves was to arrange the alliance with Epizyme, which had begun developing epigenetics drugs based around basic research discoveries made at MIT and the University of North Carolina.

Having outsiders involved has helped Glaxo adjust to new science. A few years ago, researchers at the company were convinced that the concept of tumor stem cells—a population of cells hypothesized to drive tumor formation—was incorrect. Glaxo's scientists found many reasons to not pursue the idea, even though it was gaining some traction in academia. "They were very good at finding what could go wrong, and not enthusiastic to see what could go right," says Slaoui.

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