The Healthcare Industry’s Evolving Role in Translational Research an Opportunity for Competitive Advantage

By Gregory Venters

During the 20th century, medical research has observed enormous advances in basic science discovery, highlighted by the sequencing of the human genome. However, we have not witnessed a corresponding success in the widespread application of these advances into medical practice more...

TECHNOLOGY, bane or bonanza for the pharmaceutical industry?

By Dr Stephen Naylor, Adam W. Culbertson and Dr Stephen J. Valentine

While the adoption of new technologies into the drug development process has often been seen as a panacea this article argues that, without a true understanding of the complexities how can we expect it to be the bonanza to the pharmaceutical industry and the cure for all its woes? more...

Prediction v Attrition

By Professor Malcolm Young

A substantial number of very valuable drugs have gone, or are about to go, off patent; too few good new premium drugs are coming through to market more...

LEAN SIX SIGMA its application to drug discovery

By Clare Hammond and Charles J O’Donnell

In an increasingly competitive world, the race between pharmas to get high quality candidate drugs to market is on. Contributing to this success is the discovery phase of lead optimisation. The application of Lean and Six Sigma processes have, until now, been theorised to benefit the improvement in the rate at which drugs progress through to development and improve the quality of the clinical candidates1. It is the objective of this communication to demonstrate that this is indeed possible. more...

Outsourcing for innovation takes on new meaning

By Richard Boehner

Large pharmaceutical companies are moving quickly to outsource their drug discovery operations, predominantly to lower costs. This article argues that if outsourcing is done to capture value, ie developing and preserving intellectual property as a key competitive differentiation as well as increasing productivity, then costs will fall in line accordingly. more...