This session featured a discussion of the need of companies to adopt a cooperative approach called “collaborative innovation." This new approach is necessary to address the trend of rising drug development costs that are pricing drugs out of the reach of many patients.  

Since 1982 the cost per NME has grown from $52MM to over $1.25BB.  That is at a cost of capital of 11% and unsustainable.  However, 97% of R&D professionals believe that if the industry shared information and resources, the cost of developing new drugs could be dramatically reduced (CHA Survey, 2007).   Join us on Thursday, March 6 at 11 AM ET to hear Gene Williams, Founder, Strategic Advisor, Cambridge Healthtech Associates (CHA), present ideas we believe can bring down the cost per NME to $500mm within 10-15 years.  Most importantly, we will discuss how companies need to embrace “collaborative innovation,” as the process to effectively implement these ideas.

Companies must work together on process innovations.  We need to combine the “wisdom of crowds” with the wisdom of shared costs when investing in R&D process improvement.  Together we can dramatically improve the economics of our industry and in doing so improve the health of the patients we serve.

This web conference lasted 60 minutes.