Greater Efficiency and Effectiveness in Drug Discovery
Companies are using a variety of approaches to harness greater effectiveness and efficiency in the drug discovery process. These range from organisational change and the creation of disease focused groups, partnering, spin-offs, exploiting information technology, and the promises of new research areas such as RNAi.
Why information technology is important
Scientific data is held in Information systems at almost every stage of the drug discovery process from: target identification, lead identification and optimisation to pre-clinical development. Unlocking the knowledge and sharing the information in the scientific data accumulated in information systems that underpin the drug discovery process can realise the following benefits.
Greater productivity
Improving information flows across the drug discovery process accelerates the business process by reducing cycle times enabling chemists and biologist to have a joined efficiency helping to reduce time to market, as well as enabling greater productivity.
Leverage Existing Discovery findings
Creating knowledge from information is a key challenge in the industry today. With an increasing amount of data being produced during the drug discovery process there are a variety of technologies and techniques to aid this process these include Data mining, advanced statistics, Semantic and ontological technologies as well as advanced data Visualisation techniques.
Better Management Information
Providing management with clear visibility of the status of a project can speed up a project outcome and ensure a project is on track.
Why information technology is difficult
One of the biggest challenges in applying Information technology to drug discovery is that it requires knowledge of: IT, science, the process of drug discovery, and the realities of the global pharmaceutical business. Examining the complexity of the drug discovery process and its dependence on the presence of multiple science based information models and systems bring this into sharp relief.
Drug discovery process complexity
The business process of drug discovery is complex. There is no step by step workflow advancing to a goal but rather a series of information flows that inform the overall direction of the discovery project. The discovery process requires that information is shared between the different groups involved in the project as well as consolidated to provide management with a cohesive picture of the project as a whole. In addition new discovery techniques emerge constantly, requiring new systems to support them.
Multiple Science based Information Models and Systems
The science of drug discovery is complex and diverse and this is reflected in the information systems that underpin the process. Across the discovery process there will be a multitude of different science based information models generally aimed at a specific user group or discovery technique. For example Chemists will have specialist chemical databases used to store all the compounds they use, while biologist will have experimental databases to store the results of their experiments. This has the effect of creating data silos of information specific to the system supporting that activity. This environment makes information sharing between roles and information consolidation for management challenging.
Experience
Tessella has a decades-long track record of success delivering technology and consulting services for the business-critical assignments of pharmaceutical leaders. Find out more about our work below
