Breakthroughs, Patients, Pricing, And Profits

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

In February I attended The Conference Forum’s 8th Annual R&D Leadership (RDL) Summit, a high-level event not typically open to media. Life Science Leader has been invited every year since inception (prior to the adoption of the Chatham House Rule). One of the speakers at the very first RDL was Bernie Munos, chief apostle of the InnoThink Center for Research in Biomedical Innovation. A 30-year biopharma veteran, Munos had spent his last 10 years at Eli Lilly performing advanced research on pharmaceutical innovation. He provided an overview of the “dreaded patent cliff,” while also pointing out the ineffectiveness of the current approach to drug discovery. Munos believes if companies want to improve their drug discovery efforts, they need to look at the process by which innovation takes place. But he didn’t see bigger R&D budgets as the solution, citing a number of highly innovative (nonbiophama) organizations operating on “shoestring” budgets. I specifically remember Munos adamantly stating, “We don’t need more blockbusters! We need more breakthroughs!”