 Spectrum --
March 2008
 Introduction:
Pharmaceutical companies must find successful strategies for
future drug discovery. Increased market pressures, looming drug patent
expirations, and dramatically increasing drug development costs have caused
pharmaceutical companies to search for new ways to increase R&D
productivity. To improve their output of NMEs per year, companies are reshaping
their operational infrastructure and relying on new technologies to stay
competitive.
Get the Answers You Need to Shape Your Strategy:
 Companies must decide how to take advantage of new
technologies and devise new strategies to improve drug discovery. What
corporate changes are being made at some of the largest pharmaceutical
companies to change their R&D infrastructure? How will theses
changes speed the time from discovery to approval? What reforms are
needed to accelerate the clinical trials system?
The pharmaceutical industry has adopted a spectrum of
high-throughput and high-content technologies for lead and target
identification. How are these approaches being applied to drug discovery and
development, and how will these technologies increase the number of compounds
screened annually?
Several pharmaceutical companies are tapping external sources
for innovation: What companies have created partnerships with U.S.
universities?
Scope:
Overview: Innovative drug discovery strategies are
critical to the growth of pharmaceutical R&D productivity; increase output
of NMEs needed to justify billions spent on development.
High-throughput and high-content technologies: decrease
cycle times and costs to increase productivity; lead identification
technologies produce approved drugs; microarray technologies used in basic
research; toxicity prediction using in vitro signature profiling;
patient-specific therapies play a dominant role as translational research ties
mechanism of action and efficacy to biomarkers; major reforms expected in the
U.S. clinical trials system.
Review of organizational and operational strategies: team
approach to drug discovery and development at GSK is based on
interdisciplinary, autonomous Centers for Excellence in Drug Discovery (CEDDs);
Merck decentralizes R&D to extend responsibilities to its satellite
facilities; Disease Biology Area Leadership Teams at Roche progress leads from
early discovery through medical proof-of-concept; Novartis Institutes for
BioMedical Research focus on disease-relevant molecular pathways; Teamwork at
Wyeth is based on performance metrics.
External sources of innovation: pharmaceutical
companies establish research centers near academic research sites; corporate
partnerships with biotech companies produces new sources for leads; venture
capital firms help companies tap into innovation.
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