Accelerating drug development through collaboration: the Hepatitis C Drug Development Advisory Group.

Over the past decade, landmark collaboration between regulatory agencies, pharmaceutical companies, academia, and patient community representatives has enabled the development and approval of new hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment regimens with unprecedented speed. By providing a neutral platform for cross-sector engagement, the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research's(1) HCV Drug Development Advisory Group played a critical role in fostering this collaboration and expediting drug development. The applicability of this model to other therapeutic areas should be explored.