GSK and McLaren drive high-tech research in five-year deal
UK drugs giant to take advantage of Formula 1 technology with the aim of improving its clinical research processes
The partnership, which will run initially until 2016, brings together two UK companies focused on innovation and high-tech research.
Under the agreement, McLaren Group will share its engineering, technology, analytics, and strategy modelling capabilities, with the aim of improving GSK’s clinical research processes.
The partnership will initially focus on GSK Manufacturing, Research and Development (R&D) and Consumer Healthcare.
A new learning facility, called the McLaren GSK Centre for Applied Performance, will be located at McLaren’s headquarters in Woking, Surrey, UK and open in 2013. Employees from both organisations and business partners will be able to use the facility to share ideas.
GSK’s chief executive Andrew Witty said the partnership brings together two British companies whose continued success hinges on the ability to innovate and respond to change.
‘This partnership is another example of GSK looking outside its sector for inspiration and fresh perspectives on how we can achieve our strategic goals,’ he said.
McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive executive chairman Ron Dennis said McLaren’s first ever such association with a major pharmaceutical corporation ‘represents a strategic partnership that engages two great British companies at a variety of levels across a number of disciplines in a multi-faceted and ground-breaking way’.
GSK’s r&d organisation is examining whether the application of McLaren’s expertise and technology could help drive improvements in clinical research processes by speeding up trial design and allowing for real time patient monitoring and adjustment of drug dosages.
McLaren has developed a system that allows team members to remotely monitor every aspect of the car’s performance during a Grand Prix using wireless technology. This enables the team to make regular minor adjustments every few minutes to avoid having to make significant time-consuming interventions. Working with McLaren, GSK will explore the possibility of reapplying this expertise to human studies.
GSK’s Consumer Healthcare business, which markets brands such as Lucozade, Panadol and Sensodyne, will work with this Mission Control unit to construct a similar facility at its UK headquarters in Brentford. This will enable faster responses to competitor activity and customer needs and inform decision making around inventory management, pricing, and retailer stocking.