The pharma sector is facing some of its greatest challenges, yet this is also a time of great opportunity for those with foresight to see the possibilities. Hilary Ayshford spoke to some leading industry figures about strategies for the future.
These topics will be the focus of the forthcoming NGP Drug Development Summit Europe, to be held at the Hilton Villamoura, Portugal, from 29 November - 1st December 2011.
It has become increasingly clear in recent years that the traditional pharmaceutical model based around finding the next blockbuster has become unsustainable. But simply cutting back r&d spending is not the answer: the real issue is productivity.
Reducing the attrition rate of new medicines while still meeting the key requirements of the patients, the regulatory authorities and the payers is key. To do this, the industry needs to improve its ability to predict what will happen with a compound at an early stage, thereby decreasing the cost of failure, since all the products that do not make it to market add to the total bill for those that do.
Add to that the increasing reluctance of the regulatory authorities to accept drugs with side-effects, and the recent spate of medicines that have come right through the development process and onto the market only to be withdrawn almost immediately, and it becomes clear that the price of getting it wrong is increasing.
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