Pfizer's Kindler lays out his vision for R&D teams
Takeda isn't the only big pharma company looking for ways to push scientists into a new, more productive groove. Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler (photo) has made R&D productivity a key theme. And he sat down with the Wall Street Journal recently to review how R&D teams need to be structured in order to be successful.
First, he said, the teams have to be a manageable size. Say, no bigger than 100 to 150, so they can all fit into one cafeteria. Second, the team leaders, the CSOs, need to be at the top of their field. And, third, they need to be left alone to create a distinctive culture, being evaluated based on their success demonstrating proof of concept.
Given the lengthy timeline involved in new drug development, it will be quite awhile before anyone will be able to judge Pfizer's success. In the meantime, Glaxo is setting up a new R&D structure that requires scientists to compete for money, Sanofi is looking at slashing early-stage research and Merck is retooling its research work after concluding that 75 cents out of every dollar spent in R&D goes to support failure.
You could say that the status quo is no longer acceptable. Welcome to the cafeteria school of research.
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Pfizer CEO’s Three Tips for Research Success
The conventional wisdom in the drug business these days is that smaller and more entrepreneurial is better when it comes to research. And it’s no secret that Pfizer, with its multi-billion-dollar research budget, has had its share of R&D troubles.
So we took note today when Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, on a visit to Health Blog HQ, laid out a few principles he’s tried to use in remaking Pfizer’s research operations. He managed to boil it down to three basic ideas as the company has created research groups focused on specific diseases.
1. Each group should have between 100 and 150 scientists — few enough that they can all get together in the cafeteria to talk about what they’re doing.
2. Each should be run by a chief scientific officer prominent in the field.
3. They should be left alone “to create their own culture,” and should be judged, for the most part, on a single metric: Discovering drugs that demonstrate proof of concept.
It’s too early to say how well this will work. In any case, Pfizer certainly isn’t alone in trying to push its labs in this direction.
GlaxoSmithKline started breaking up its labs years ago, and more recently launched a push to have its scientists compete for $1 billion in internal funding from a board that includes a venture capitalist and the CEO of a biotech company. Sanofi-Aventis’s new CEO suggested he may cut his company’s early-stage research budget in half, and spend more on licensing compounds from other companies. And Merck’s chief strategy officer recently pointed out that 75 cents of every dollar the industry spends on R&D “goes to fund failure,” and said Merck is going through a “painful” restructuring of its research divisions.
parla col dr no.... 
vendere comprare ,switchare.... a me non frega un bel niente! te l' ho sempre detto 
lo sai bene che tutta la crew sarà pagata con LAUTI DIVIDENDI NITRICI!
poichè non ha senso di orientamento e quindi non troverà mai l'eldorado nitrico
