Pharma Make Private Public

Last week, leaders from companies like AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Roche met in Vienna in a closed meeting to discuss the future of the pharma industry. Fears of layoffs at pharmaceutical companies are once again dominating the news, but could there be a less painful way to save money?

Attendees at the Next Generation Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery Summit (hosted by GDS International) were among those leading the rumours of job cuts within the Drug Discovery Arena, but this was far from being their main focus. Despite the obvious fears and dangers, the consensus was that the only way forward was to continue looking towards the future.

Ted Torphy, Vice President & Lead, External Innovation of Johnson & Johnson made it clear that as a pharmaceutical company they were there to lend a little more rope to solution providers and to have faith in their abilities. He discussed the idea of setting up ‘temporary partnerships’ to combat an innovation deficit recently noticed within pharma. Productivity within the labs has been seen to be plummeting as the focus begins to switch from diseases that are relatively common to those that are more complex or unusual.

“The innovation deficit has enormous implications for the industry as a whole. Many pharmaceutical companies need to look at what they want to be doing and where they should be concentrating. They must identify the core competencies the activity will require. The pharmaceutical companies that regard R&D as a core element of their business will have to make fundamental alterations in the way they work.”

One suggestion made is that the industry should become more innovative and look to reducing its R&D costs. Private companies who conventionally undertake pharmaceutical research will traditionally employ stringent measures to protect their research results as private intellectual property (IP) until they have achieved a marketable compound. A by-product of this is an inability to share their research results with each other, sometimes even within a single company. Pharmaceutical researchers tend to be consumers rather than suppliers. Consequently, commercial competitors are blocked from access to important discoveries as well as an effective research history. So the consensus at the NGP EU summit was of a need to fill the ‘IP Shadow’ and the recently experienced innovation deficit.

Ted Torphy was joined in his views by Les Hughes, VP Drug Discovery for Oncology & Infection, AstraZeneca and Andrew Parsons, VP and Head of Preclinical Development , GlaxoSmithKline Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (ceedd) in calling for a open collaboration that embraces temporary partnerships and sharing intelligent property.

Companies themselves are expected to change shape. In the future the industry will look vastly different from the current model of huge companies carrying out a range of functions – research, development, marketing, sales, and manufacturing – across the globe. While big companies will still exist, they will need to pursue different business models and try new methods to achieve the right balance.

Pharma ‘HTS’ the Mark with Screening

Back in May, it was announced that new stem cell research would reduce the need for animal testing. Now, we are really beginning to see the benefits of groundbreaking science that is not reliant on out dated methods of testing. The proposal was that by reprogramming powerful stem cells from adult tissue, we could look towards a future without animal testing.
It is understood that huge amounts of money have been invested into drug discovery and the biggest problem faced by the industry is investing in drugs which may not make it onto the market. Europe has always been seen to trail behind the US when discussing drug discovery within the pharmaceutical industry, but with the biotechnology revolution they have begun to catch and becoming a driving force within the global industry.
The NGP EU committee has been celebrating the success of their pioneering roles in genome sequencing and the development of proteomic. Pfizer has recently announced to the NGP Drug Discovery committee that they plan to roll out a hit identification and screening file strategy. The process will offer a new flexible strategy for hit identification while sculpting a more reliable and efficient screening process.

Hit-throughput screening (HTS) has grown rapidly over the last ten years and Pfizer themselves noted the huge advances in both detection technology and laboratory automation. Pfizer believe that not only big Pharma but also smaller companies can implement HTS as well. By implementing HTS, it can remove the indecision over which compunds will be profiles, many smaller companies agonize over the costs of conventional profiling sometimes only choosing between 10 and 20 compounds, this already removes other possibilities before true research can really begin. Pfizer among other members of the NGP EU Drug Discovery committee wish to discuss how they wish to implement large scale profiling at a lower cost, while maintaining the incredible biological, technological, and scientific advancements they are already demonstrating globally.
GSK have also joined Pfizer recently in encouraging the implementation of HTS. “We are now at a stage where we can exploit the benefits of cutting edge technology for increased quality, performance and capabilities. We also have the option to supply the same number of compounds, with the same level of quality at an affordable price”.
Key to discussions will be representatives from AstraZeneca - Goran Wennberg, VP Discovery Information, Bayer Schering Pharma - Andreas Busch, Head of Global Drug Discovery & Member of the Board , Novartis - Olivier Grenet , Group Head of Genome Biology ,GlaxoSmithKline - Tino Rossi, VP of PreClinical Drug Discovery & Enabling Technologies and Pfizer - John Mathias, Head of High Through Put Screening all determined to firmly place Europe as the Drug Discovery capital.
The discovery and implementation of HTS not only offers an opportunity to smaller Pharma companies but also the consumer, if research and quality is increased and cost decreased this in turn will be passed onto the consumer

Remedy Consumer Trust – Pharma Execs Unite

It has been no secret that consumer trust in the pharmaceutical industry has taken a knock recently. The industry has been faced with bad press from the US ‘Avandia’ Scandal to the WHO’s reaction to the Swine Flu Pandemic. Big Pharma understands that responsibility to the consumer lies with them and in an active effort to remedy the flagging consumer trust they have agreed to come together at this year’s illustrious NGP Summit in Portugal ran by GDS International.

“An effective compliance program embedded in the ‘right’ compliance culture has become the best practice standard within global jurisdiction.” Says NGP 20 Chair Willy van Buggenhout VP WW Healthcare Compliance at Johnson & Johnson

Big Pharma companies adhere to strict compliance programs which act as a commitment to the consumer and meet with the laws and regulations set by government bodies, but discrepancy between each companies ‘code of conduct’ has lead to confusion both within the industry and for the customer. Representatives from Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi Pasteur and Astra Zeneca are meeting at the NGP EU summit to discuss how they plan to rebuild consumer trust and create a ‘Standard code of practice’ accessible and understood by all.

“The effectiveness of a compliance program is to a large extent determined by the degree with which values are shared and embraced by all levels in an organization.”

Although the outlook looks good for the pharmaceutical industry meetings such as the NGP EU summit promote camaraderie in an otherwise highly competitive Market. The goal is to promote growth while maintaining business to consumer trust. 20 handpicked executives will gather before the summit in a Closed-door meeting to develop a vision on the key steps needed to capture new markets and revenues under the new compliance guidelines.