With blockbuster drug patents set to expire in the next few years, big pharma is looking hard for ways to pack the discovery pipeline.

One approach: the biotech model. Patrick Vallance, the head of drug discovery at GlaxoSmithKline, said at a meeting on Friday (June 6) that research at the company would be reorganized to be "more biotech-like," the Financial Times reported. He said the plan was to split drug discovery into small units focused on specific disease areas, "and reward people based on successful value creation," while providing "disincentives" against destroying value.

Another approach: the granting agency. Pfizer and the University of California, San Francisco, announced a partnership today (June 10) in which the company will contribute $9.5 million to early-stage research at the university over the next three years.

Usually, industry funding targets specific projects, but in this case, researchers at the UCSF's Institute for Quantitative Biosciences will collaborate more broadly with the company, with both parties working together to identify promising ideas in different health disciples. Daniel Sanit, the institute's director, told the San Francisco Chronicle that academic researchers and their institution will retain patents to any inventions, while Pfizer will have the right to negotiate licenses on the technology.