Collaborative Innovation: The Future of BioPharma

• Main Author: Cristián Hernández-Cuevas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Alberto Hurtado 2007-09-01
• Series: Journal of Technology Management & Innovation
• Online Access: http://www.jotmi.org/index.php/GT/article/view/402

The pharmaceutical industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing drugs, medicines and related products for human or animal use. Nowadays, bio pharmaceutical corporations are facing serious inefficiencies in their drug discovery process. The drug discovery process consists of four phases. These are research phase (average 3 years), pre-clinical testing phase (average 1 year), clinical trial testing phase involving human patients (average 10 years) and regulatory approval phase (average 2 years). Undoubtedly, research is the step in which substantial risks are being taken. During this process, researchers develop tests to screen libraries of chemical compounds against therapeutic targets, evaluate the amount of a drug required to effectively treat the disease, study the extent to which a drug interacts only with the target, assess the presence and significance of any harmful side effects and design the way the drug is going to be administered to patients.