Academic drug discovery centres: the economic and organisational sustainability of an emerging model

•Four case studies of the organisational sustainability of academic drug discovery centres (ADDCs) are presented.•We identify factors that are crucial for overcoming the main tensions of the ADDC model.•Key tensions refer to funding, patenting issues, organisation and institutional compatibility.•Grants and academic appointments of senior staff have particular impact.

Academic drug discovery centres (ADDCs) are seen as one of the solutions to fill the innovation gap in early drug discovery, which has proven challenging for previous organisational models. Prior studies of ADDCs have identified the need to analyse them from the angle of their economic and organisational sustainability. We take that angle in an in-depth study of four prominent ADDCs. Our findings indicate that there are clear similarities in the way sustainable centres are organised, managed and financed. We also identify factors in the frameworks of academia and research funding affecting their performance.