Collaboration in Pharmaceutical Industry

Introduction

Most pharmaceutical organizations today have seen the benefits of their initial collaboration efforts for improving data collection from clinical trials through electronic data capture, or from the way teams contribute to and assemble new drug submissions. However, efficient collaboration in many other aspects in this industry has yet to become second nature.

As the market for new drugs evolves, the methodologies for moving them into the market is changing and becoming more complex, thus relying more and more on efficient communication and collaboration strategies between the various parties involved in the whole value chain. With the dawning of personalized medicine and the passing era of blockbuster molecules, pharmaceutical companies are slowly shifting from an industry of products to one of information. In addition, the shift to more integrated global operations, and a distributed organizational structure, make the reliance on effective collaboration and communication tools of paramount importance.

Pharmaceutical Business Drivers

Pipelines are shrinking, the attrition rate for molecules in development is high, and drug markets in major therapeutic areas are being commoditized. Pharmaceutical companies are being forced to develop more truly innovative compounds, faster and at a lower cost if they want to survive. The issue being, how to get sufficient amounts of compounds to ensure at least one will make it to the market. It may seem contradictory, but a key obsession of the pharmaceutical industry is to then be able to identify as quickly as possible those candidates that are likely to fail, due to toxicity issues as an example, and drop them from their portfolio in order to free up and redirect precious resources to the winning horse. To do this, pharmaceutical companies need to apply creativity to their research processes in order to build a large funnel of potential pharmaceutical projects. They are also driven to search externally, both in smaller companies as well as academia, for new drug candidates to in-license and continue development. Data from this research is often disparate in locations around the globe. Collaboration is essential in such research, as it is being done with multiple partners through an often iterative, continuous and long lasting process within the context of translational medicine for instance or outsourced to global organizations, which adds to the complexity of efficiently managing the generated data and effectively managing these candidates through the pipeline.

Within the context of product lifecycle management, multiple teams from departments that not only are different in functionality but also may be new to the project need to engage and collaborate to develop new formulation, new medical devices, new indications, etc. in order to extend the life of the drug’s patent and prevent the erosion of sales due to generics.

For these reasons, common collaboration services are needed. Establishing these services will provide pharmaceutical organizations with these direct business benefits:

• Improved R&D efficiency leveraging collaboration capabilities
• Improved collaboration between public and private labs and partners
• Improved lifecycle management of products
• Enhanced Information Dissemination
• Improved relations with key stakeholders such as doctors and consumers
• Focus on products that have the best chance of getting to market and accelerated time to Market

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and their customers are not the only entities having to collaborate. Regulatory agencies are tasked with ensuring that products are safe and efficient, and have to do so not just at the time when a dossier for a New Drug Application is presented to them, but also during the entire time that drug is being commercialized - this is a lengthy, complex and costly process.

The Collaboration Spectrum & What Is Needed

So where do pharmaceutical organizations start? Create a plan for drug discovery, development and approval with key indicators that leverages collaboration to enable rapid selection of the most innovative and promising drug candidates.

Key to the success of collaboration are people, network, content strategy for each department (OPCO) because each department’s needs’ are different and a corporate information architecture that pulls it all together into a usable and sustainable experience for staff. For example, each department has different job functions, goals and tasks for their functional area, applications and information they require and people they interact with. The end goal is to create THE place to go for Pharmaceutical staff, partners and their customers. Sharing information, streamlining business process, self service and empowering staff with the relevant and timely information in a natural manner without having to even think about it can help provide the staff with the leading edge to be successful.

In addition to the better known collaboration technologies in everyday use such as email, team sites, and web conferencing, companies are researching and selectively deploying Web 2.0 within the enterprise. The application of social networking tools allows companies to tap into and leverage the tacit, or implicit, knowledge contained within the organization to great benefit. For example, knowledge networks can be created by identifying relationships between individuals and the topics discussed. These networks can then be used to link individuals together, such as scientists working on similar compounds in different parts of the world, outside of formal reporting structures or functional boundaries.

Ultimately pharmaceutical companies must strive to create a ecosystem of people and information to reduce cost structures and speed time to market. The following diagram depicts the collaboration ecosystem:

Figure 1 - Collaboration Ecosystem

HP Collaboration Framework

HP has developed a collaboration framework whose purpose is to provide a holistic view of collaboration and key subject areas that must be addressed when deploying a collaboration solution. Providing a holistic view, the framework addresses business drivers, technologies, management of change, content strategies, collaboration as a service offering, user support, office design and security. The following diagram depicts the framework that consists of:

• Business drivers
• External factors
• Workplace
• Governance
• Information Architecture
• People
• Network
• Security and compliance
• Help Desk and Mentoring
• Change Management

The frame work addresses the many aspects of creating a sustainable and secure environment staff will use day to day from anywhere they must work.

How Do We Get There?

Don't under estimate the complexity of deploying a collaboration solution! Most Pharmaceutical companies are global in nature and therefore have a diverse geographical structure resulting in a highly distributed/complex IT infrastructure (Note: many are trying to simplify through office consolidation to lower their cost structures). This means that content and associated data is being created and stored in dispersed places and often in different format, i.e. a cat is not always called a cat (islands of information). The impact is that there is no central place to go for storing, categorizing, retrieving and managing information assets. To compound the dilemma further, few organizations have taken the time to create an Information Architecture that organizes its content and associated work flow procedures into an efficient organic whole – One is rarely ever provided with an Information Architecture when consulting with customers. Most organizations don’t have the skill sets and therefore just don’t understand Information Architecture - Information Management as a whole.

HP’s Approach

HPs recommended approach for working with the business involves two key work streams:

• Work stream 1 - to understand their specific requirements. The focus of the work analyzes peoples work (goals and tasks), their interaction with other staff and specific tools and content they utilize. Additionally, HP looks for inefficiencies (time consuming tasks) and or gaps in their toolsets and information sources. HP then works with IT
• Work stream 2 - to understand the current environment, address the business toolset and information assets and needs. Once completing these work streams, HP presents the client with a feasibility study for establishing their collaboration environment. This approach works well since it helps our sponsor raise awareness of the value of new technologies, raise awareness amongst the business units and apply new technologies and disciplines to the business.

Solution design and implementation leverage HP’s Global Method, people and technology to ensure a predictable and timely outcome. Depending on the environment and situation, HP can support the solution and even manage the environment.

Figure 2 – HP Global Method

An integral part of this new strategy is embracing the Internet and Intranet as an intricate part of their business (e.g. supporting a mobile workforce, virtualizing the office, integrating partners, enabling staff to work beyond the corporate walls, leverage corporate information assets to boost sales and improve customer service) and marketing tactics.

Summary

HP has the breadth of services, experience and products to deliver a complete solution and is flexible enough to provide engagements to address the specific requirements of our clients. HP continued to further its commitment to collaboration and information management for instance, through the announced purchase of Tower – a provider of EDRM software and EDS. a leader in the IT service business. As a global company, HP has significant experience (breadth and depth) and resources to bring to bear to facilitate the success of our clients collaboration and information management program. Additionally, HP labs continue to develop unique solutions in the space such as software that ontology to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide consumers with an aggregate view of news they need. HP also shares its experiences across different industries to bring experience from other industries providing its clients with innovative ideas and ultimately a greater degree of value.

For more information contact heinz.thommen@hp.com.