Healthcare and Life Sciences: IT can make a positive impact

The pharmaceutical business model for new drug development has been simple and straight for a long time - develop a new drug -> bring it to market (after long periods of tests, clinical trials and approvals - and in those days regulators accepted new drug risks if their side effects would potentially touch a very low percentage of individuals) ->hope this becomes a blockbuster and pray the generic drugs replacement of this blockbuster at the end of the patent period tends to at least a 'light-year'!

Well a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and the above model is becoming less viable by the day.  

According to Forrester the reasons include:

• As research and development (R&D) costs go up, blockbusters are harder to find
• Geographic differences affect firms' globalization efforts
• Despite or because of these changes, the pharma sector continues to consolidate
• US healthcare cost concerns put additional pressure on drug prices
• Pharma R&D organizations are adopting Innovation Networks
• Technology is widely viewed as an innovation driver

When Forrester asked IT execs from pharmaceutical firms to rank IT drivers, they listed their top three drivers as: reducing the cost of IT, reducing the cost of the business, and supporting regulatory requirements.  Worldwide industry experts have acknowledged that IT can make a positive impact on the development of Healthcare and life sciences solution primarily in four arenas - safety, quality, cost and access.