The Biomarkers Consortium: practice and pitfalls of open-source precompetitive collaboration.

Precompetitive collaboration is a growing driver for innovation and increased productivity in biomedical science and drug development. The Biomarkers Consortium, a public-private platform for precompetitive collaboration specific to biomarkers, demonstrated that adiponectin has potential utility as a predictor of metabolic responses to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) agonists in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Despite the challenges overcome by this project, the most important lesson learned is that cross-company precompetitive collaboration is a feasible robust approach to biomarker qualification.