BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - October 30, 2009) - Drug companies racing to develop new products to
replace drugs coming off patent are finding that success is increasingly
tied to the company's ability to align operational goals with strategic
objectives, according to a panel of pharmaceutical and biotech industry
leaders recently convened by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug
Development.
The group also noted that greater reliance on performance-focused metrics
that support forward-looking decision making, as opposed to
milestone-focused measures, is critical to creating top-performing
organizations.
Tufts CSDD Director Kenneth I Kaitin said, "Since only three in 10 new
drugs, on average, generate sufficient revenues to sustain R&D, the
imperative for drug developers is to not only increase R&D productivity,
but also to transform the way companies conduct research and development.
Metrics that tie operational and businesses goals help developers focus
scarce resources in their race against expiring patents."
According to Tufts CSDD, current worldwide sales for top selling drugs
coming off patent from 2009 through 2012 exceed $88 billion, including 25
blockbusters -- drugs with annual sales of $1 billion or more.
"The best performing companies are working with contract research
organizations [CROs] more as partners and less as service providers,"
Kaitin said. "They're also actively collaborating with global regulatory
agencies and conducting more of their clinical trials offshore."
The pharmaceutical and biotech executives, who convene several times a year
at the Tufts CSDD Executive Forum Roundtable Series, also noted that:
-- Sophisticated partnerships between pharmaceutical companies, biotech
firms, and CROs let drug sponsors focus on their core competencies while
relying on external partners to conduct non-core activities.
-- Technical advances, such as the use of biomarkers and e-data
management technologies, are helping developers improve drug development
efficiency.
SCHEDULED TUFTS CSDD EXECUTIVE FORUM ROUNDTABLES
Upcoming Tufts CSDD Executive Forum Roundtable meetings will focus on the
following:
Nov. 12, 2009 -- Comparative Approaches to Capacity Forecasting
Feb. 25, 2010 -- Improving ROI and Late Stage Clinical Success Rates
May 13, 2010 -- Strategies for Managing Drug Development
Risk: Maintaining Portfolio Diversity
Sept. 16, 2010 -- Outsourcing Strategies Across the Value Chain
To learn more, call 617-636-2170.
About the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (
http://csdd.tufts.edu)
at Tufts University provides strategic information to help drug developers,
regulators, and policy makers improve the quality and efficiency of
pharmaceutical development, review, and utilization. Tufts CSDD, based in
Boston, conducts a wide range of in-depth analyses on pharmaceutical issues
and hosts symposia, workshops, and public forums, and publishes the Tufts
CSDD Impact Report, a bi-monthly newsletter providing analysis and insight
into critical drug development issues.
Contact Information: Contact:
Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Charlene Neu
617-636-2187
Business Communication Strategies
Peter Lowy
617-734-9980