Centrix Pharma Solutions has partnered with the University of Sussex on a £375,000 Knowledge Transfer Partnership aimed at using data analytics and predictive modeling to improve pharmaceutical product development.
The Innovate UK-supported project includes £250,000 in grant funding. It will combine Centrix’s pharmaceutical development and manufacturing expertise with the University of Sussex’s data-science research to develop more data-driven approaches to product development.
Centrix said pharmaceutical programs generate substantial formulation, analytical and process data, but the information is often fragmented across projects and systems. That fragmentation can limit companies’ ability to identify trends, predict outcomes and use prior results to guide future development decisions.
The project will initially focus on early-stage product development. Centrix and the University of Sussex plan to create tools and methodologies to identify development risks earlier, reduce unnecessary experimentation, improve confidence in decisions and speed the movement of promising medicines toward clinical evaluation.
The work is expected to support decisions involving formulation selection, dosage-form optimization and development-pathway planning. Centrix said these choices often depend on manual analysis and individual experience, which can increase the risk of rework, delays and weaker program outcomes.
The partnership will also establish internal data-science capabilities at Centrix. The company plans to recruit a dedicated Knowledge Transfer Partnership associate to lead the project, work across both organizations and connect academic research with industrial application.
Chris Davison, Centrix’s chief executive officer, said the company sees an opportunity to better use the pharmaceutical data generated throughout development. He said the partnership will embed specialist analytical capabilities in the business and help Centrix deliver more efficient programs for clients.
Kate Thorpe, head of innovation and business partnerships at the University of Sussex, said Knowledge Transfer Partnerships bring academic expertise together with practical industry challenges. She said the collaboration aims to establish ways of working that continue to create value after the initial project concludes.
Centrix said the initiative demonstrates how collaboration among industry, academia and government can support innovation in the U.K. life-sciences sector, build skilled employment and help pharmaceutical companies advance medicines more efficiently.