Adviser and Business Mentor to Bioscience SMEs and Startups
The trend of multinational pharma companies partnering with academia and small biotechs continues unabated. But given the additional risks inherent in such collaborations, how many of these partnerships will eventually lead to innovative new medicines?
Continue reading “Hidden Risks for Pharma Companies Collaborating with Academia and Small Biotechs”
Triggered by recently published studies on R&D performance, I have engaged in some interesting discussions over the past few weeks on where to focus productivity improvement efforts. Here in one contiguous article is my take on the key levers for improving productivity in a bioscience R&D organization.
Some interesting findings from an industry study on the operational performance drivers in clinical R&D were published earlier this month, many of them challenging established wisdom. In this article, I comment on these findings and look at their implications for both the big pharmas and especially the smaller biopharma SMEs.
Continue reading “Leveling the Operational Playing Field in Clinical R&D”
As six months have now elapsed since its initial publication in the peer-reviewed journal Research-Technology Management (RTM), we reproduce here the full text of the paper authored by myself and Timo Lotta. This paper documents a comprehensive case study of how Orion Pharma’s R&D organization was transformed to implement a results-oriented “open R&D” model through proactive culture change.
Continue reading “Creating a Culture of Productivity and Collaborative Innovation”
Are the best project leaders for partnered projects th same as those with strong established track records of success in internal projects? The answer is, “Yes, but …” as I shall explain in this blog post
Continue reading “Attributes of a Good Project Leader in an R&D Partnership”
Partnering assets with large pharmaceutical, diagnostic or medical device multinationals is a critical part of the business model for many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the life sciences. But does it make sense for an SME to have a clearly defined partnering strategy or should it be opportunistic?
Continue reading “Strategic Asset Partnering for Bioscience SMEs—Planned or Opportunistic?”
Alliance managers are a critical component of how an increasing number of biopharma organizations manage their R&D and commercial partnerships. But many participants in collaborative projects or ventures do not fully comprehend nor appreciate their role. Having led a workshop last month at the very stimulating Strategic Alliance Management for Pharma conference in Barcelona, it struck me once again how varied the understanding of this important role is even amongst practitioners. Not that this variation matters of course as long as the role adds value, especially given the diversity of the underlying alliances. Nevertheless, I thought it might be useful to at least summarize in one article all the important potential elements of the role.
Timo Lotta and I are pleased to announce the publication of our paper in the peer-reviewed journal Research-Technology Management (RTM) . This paper documents a comprehensive case study of how Orion Pharma’s R&D organization was transformed to implement a results-oriented “open R&D” model through proactive culture change
Continue reading “R&D Productivity and Culture Change Paper”
Why are success rates in pharmaceutical R&D so low? And unlike many other industries where technology has accelerated R&D, why has the productivity trend in pharmaceutical R&D been worsening over the past few decades? As the reasons are not obvious, I thought it would be illuminating to many of my blog readers if I summarized the key findings of the most influential studies and papers investigating the root causes of the pharmaceutical R&D productivity crisis. Full references to all the papers mentioned are provided at the end of this article.
Continue reading “Root Causes of the Pharmaceutical R&D Productivity Crisis”
Some companies manage their important collaborators and alliance partners as if they were strategic suppliers. But this does not always make sense for every commercial and R&D alliance in today’s networked business world. In this article, we outline how the approach adopted for alliance management has evolved from the strategic sourcing and supplier relationship management paradigms, and discuss in more detail why it needs to go well beyond those roots in certain circumstances.
Continue reading “Do you Manage your Alliance Partner like a Supplier?”
Robert Thong 