Why A State Of Agility Continues To Elude Life Sciences R&D

By James Man

In life sciences, improving organizational agility has been a strategic preoccupation for a long time now — particularly reducing R&D cycle times and accelerating market delivery. But the results have often been less than inspiring. The sticking point is the way companies make decisions. For sharper practices to produce tangible benefits to external stakeholders, pharmaceutical companies must also be smarter about the programs they deliver — able to determine and prioritize those that offer maximum value to their intended markets.

Yet few R&D organizations have the line of sight and dexterity to achieve this. Typically, strategic decision-making is held back by restrictive governance structures and functional silos and a lack of supporting market, patient, and regulatory evidence and insight at key investment points. Turning this situation around involves improving the integration, quality, and speed of decision- making across the R&D organization.