A new IMS Health report posits that, “The billions of dollars thrown at global health problems by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are changing the game in drug discovery, posing big challenges to the world's top drug makers.â€
"Pharma companies need to develop an explicit strategy to deal with this phenomenon," IMS said in its annual Intelligence.360 report on factors shaping the industry.
According to the report, the foundation’s $60 billion gives it plentiful resources to compete in the medical research arena with both government-funded institutions and commercial pharmaceutical firms.
IMS believes that, even if drug companies succeed in making key discoveries first, they may still find it attractive to partner with the Gates Foundations, from a practical and public relations point of view.
Well, that’s all to the good – but what the report doesn’t mention is that discovery and development is still a very difficult proposition.
Drugwonks challenges the Gates Foundation to become a major player in the FDA’s Critical Path program – because the best way to get new cures to market faster is to develop the 21st tools required to expedite discovery and development.
Here’s the link to the Reuters story on the IMS report:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070417/hl_nm/gates_pharmaceuticals_dc_1
"Pharma companies need to develop an explicit strategy to deal with this phenomenon," IMS said in its annual Intelligence.360 report on factors shaping the industry.
According to the report, the foundation’s $60 billion gives it plentiful resources to compete in the medical research arena with both government-funded institutions and commercial pharmaceutical firms.
IMS believes that, even if drug companies succeed in making key discoveries first, they may still find it attractive to partner with the Gates Foundations, from a practical and public relations point of view.
Well, that’s all to the good – but what the report doesn’t mention is that discovery and development is still a very difficult proposition.
Drugwonks challenges the Gates Foundation to become a major player in the FDA’s Critical Path program – because the best way to get new cures to market faster is to develop the 21st tools required to expedite discovery and development.
Here’s the link to the Reuters story on the IMS report:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070417/hl_nm/gates_pharmaceuticals_dc_1
