Archive for February, 2010

What’s Your On-Demand Strategy?

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Clients used to ask, “What’s on-demand, and why would I do it?”. Now they ask, “I’m hearing on-demand is a great alternative, why wouldn’t I do it?”  We’re starting to reach a tipping point, and CIOs are now asked, “what is our on-demand strategy?”

The issues clients initially become concerned about are security and data, dependence on a third party, and integration with other systems.  For most emerging biotechs, the security concerns melt away when they look at their own current security versus that of any of the likely on-demand solutions and see that the provider’s security is far superior to their own.  Most on-demand providers today acknowledge that the client owns the data, and will even provide a “data escrow” facility, if the client wants to go that far.
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Is Operational Excellence Relevant in R&D?

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

I recently asked this question in the Linked In Pharmaceuticals Operational Excellence Group online forum which resulted in an enthusiastic and insightful dialogue. 

Lean, Six Sigma and all of the other buzz words under the umbrella of Operational Excellence are traditionally applied to activities linked directly to commercial production. More recently, administrative and service functions have also been targeted.  So, why not R&D?

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The MacGyver Project: Lessons Learned in Minimizing Cost and Time to Reach the Clinic

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Working for a large biotech company I was assigned to a product development team that was given the challenge of getting a first-in-man drug into a Phase-1 trial using the minimalist amount of resources and shortest amount of time.  The project was named after the 1980s TV series hero MacGyver who applied his scientific knowledge to ordinary items (e.g. Swiss Army knife) to create for him and others a means of escape from impending doom and in the process save the world.  (more…)

Virtual Workforce is a Growing Trend at Emerging Life Science Companies

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

There is a growing trend at emerging life science companies to adopt a ‘Virtual Workforce’ model in order to keep head count and capital burn rate down, and flexibility up.  Instead of hiring full time employees to fill department roles, companies are bringing on the appropriate level of talent via consulting firms, resource companies, or hiring contractors directly. Even some manager level roles are being filled this way. Some companies run virtually by design, while others do so because experienced FTE resources were simply impossible to find when they needed them.
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