January, 2010

FIPNet — 1 Comment
29
Jan 10

FIPNet Supported by Cloud Computing

My colleague Brian discussed the FIPNet model in his last post as a structure for drug development and as a model for allocating “core” and “non-core” competencies among various partners to assure that your business has best practices throughout the entire drug development lifecycle.

Today, I would like to talk about how “cloud computing” has accelerated and facilitated the viability of the FIPNet model.  If you have used Facebook, Linkedin, Salesforce, Google Apps. or other similar tools on the Internet, then you have used cloud computing.  “Cloud computing” in its broadest sense refers to the delivery of applications over the internet, which are accessed via a web browser; the data and software resides on remote servers.  At PhysioGenix, we have worked over the last year to move our IT infrastructure into the “cloud”.  This has created greater efficiencies, dramatically reduced costs and increased our delivery time of information to our clients.

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FIPNet / Outsourcing — No Comments
22
Jan 10

Outsourcing: FIPNet becomes a Core Competency

As my colleague Greg discussed last week, Eli Lilly, like many other large pharmaceutical companies, has realized the importance of strategic partnerships from discovery to launch. Current market forces and outdated operating dynamics have forced large pharmaceutical companies to investigate “fully integrated pharmaceutical network” (FIPNets) as a way to gain best practices in non-core competencies. And while the pharmaceutical industry continues to determine the precise nature of an efficient FIPNet model, there is no doubt that strategic partnerships will play an ever-increasing role in drug development.

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Outsourcing — 2 Comments
7
Jan 10

Outsourcing: Non-Core Competencies in Drug Development

To begin down the outsourcing path, a business must identify its core competencies.  “Core competencies” are skills and knowledge that are central to how a particular business operates and distinguishes itself from other businesses in its industry.  Areas of a business that are not “core” have the potential to be outsourced.  The ideal outsource partner will be an expert in your non-core competencies; in other words, your outsource partner’s core competencies will be in the areas of your non-core competencies.  When the network of internal and external competencies are taken as a whole, your business should be using best practices in all areas.

In a January 5, 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Rockoff, wrote about Eli Lilly & Co.’s expanded use of outsourcing to run tests on its drug candidates.  Lilly has partnered with third-parties to develop a novel rheumatoid arthritis drug.  In adopting this approach, Rockoff said that,

“By outsourcing human tests of such a potentially important drug, Lilly is among a crowd of pharmaceutical giants adopting out-of-the-box strategies to revive fallow research-and-development organizations.  Lilly is counting on a network of outside contractors to help develop not only the arthritis remedy but several other drugs it hopes start hitting the shelves as early as 2013.”

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