KMR Group Assesses Discovery Research In Biopharma Industry

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 10 Nov 2008 - 3:00 PST

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KMR GROUP, a firm analyzing biopharmaceutical R&D performance, announces the launch of a Discovery study to assess research performance and identify trends that promise to shape the most successful Discovery organizations of the future. The study is part of the Pharmaceutical Benchmarking Forum's initiatives for 2009 and already has a number of major company participants. The work is poised to provide an unparalleled analysis of performance metrics for the drug discovery world as well as illuminate how key factors, such as technology, drug target validation, and organization can impact the success of the drug discovery effort.

Important Issues Addressed In This Study

- Establishment of a reliable baseline of key performance measures; enabling companies to define operational excellence against a backdrop of its peers.

- Assessment of investment in key technologies and how these investments contribute to greater innovation.

- Examination of target strategy within the construct of development success and failure -- what works, what doesn.t, and why.

- Exploration of organization structure and resource use in terms of internal investment, outsourcing, alliances and licensing, and how they contribute to greater success and productivity.

Topics will range from exploring the best environments for nurturing innovation to the most critical technology pursuits.

Grounding the study will be a thorough examination of investment and productivity measures along with a guide to explore how these measures can be used to promote healthy behavior in support of the overall discovery strategy.

The objective is to provide heads of research in biopharma with insight based on reliable, quantitative analysis of the discovery research organization, including an assessment of structure, investment, key measures, and trends in the areas of technology and licensing. All results are confidential and all company-specific data is blinded.

KMR is now recruiting participants for this, upcoming analysis of Discovery Research, which will answer key questions such as:

-- What is the baseline in terms of discovery output? How do these outputs translate into development success? How do back-ups contribute to overall success?

-- What mechanisms are being implemented to improve the quality of discovery targets and to identify new targets?

-- Where technology investments are being made and what are the implications for greater discovery innovation?

-- What is the trend in organizational structure? Is the organization therapy area focused?

-- How many therapy areas does each research organization support? Are those organizations that invest more per therapy area more productive?

-- What is the effect on discovery at some companies of the conversion from a smallmolecule focus to a larger share of biopharmaceuticals? What unique resources are needed for a large molecule shift?

-- How closely integrated is the discovery organization to downstream development processes?

-- What is the focus of research effort in terms of biology, chemistry, and technology platforms? How many diseases or targets does each platform support? Do those which support more produce more? Does greater investment per platform result in greater output?

-- What is the overall level of licensing investment discovery? What is being licensed in discovery: technologies, molecules, process, various other types of IP? How is licensing impacting overall discovery results? How does licensing of IP influence the work of discovery?

-- What components of the discovery process are most heavily outsourced, such as highthroughput screening, gene chip DNA analysis, early-toxicology, chemical development? What are the main differences across discovery organizations and how has this changed recently?

-- What are recent trends in outsourcing: e.g., process chemistry and toxicology to Asia?

-- What are the critical challenges associated with these practices?

We are providing major biopharmaceuticals with an in-depth analysis of research performance so that they can better understand, based on reliable and confidential comparative data, how their organizations are faring in the quest to accelerate drug discovery and produce innovative and safe medicines," commented Linda Martin, Principal of KMR GROUP.

About KMR

KMR provides information services and analysis to the biopharmaceutical R&D industry. Founded in 1991, KMR is a management consulting firm that uses its extensive datasets and experience within the industry to analyze performance. With reliable data as a foundation, we help clients compare themselves objectively against other companies in the industry and offer advice on how they may improve performance.

KMR