Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9205

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Weisbach JA, Moos WH.
Diagnosing the decline of major pharmaceutical research laboratories: prescription for drug companies
Drug Development Research 1995 Mar; 34:243-259

Abstract:

Despite dramatically increasing expenditures for in-house pharmaceutical research and development at major drug companies, few internally discovered, breakthrough products are on the horizon, compared to biotechnology companies with significantly less private funding, that are playing an ever more significant role in generating promising biomedical product candidates. For a variety of factors, ranging from financial and management to scientific in nature, it is suggested that the 20th century has encompassed the rise and decline of major pharmaceutical discovery research laboratories. Having diagnosed some of the problems inherent to the existing organizations, it is concluded that if pharmaceutical companies were placed in the center of constellations of alliances with biotechnology companies, with the same or even fewer dollars, pharmaceutical companies could significantly enhance existing research productivity, with less risk, and with potentially higher rewards.