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Page 408 IX. Zeneca Laboratory's Hidden Cost Benefit A. More Efficient Use of Laboratory Resources The principal responsibility of the laboratory is to support Zeneca's preclinical safety evaluation program. Because of the small volume of blood available from most of our animals for analysis it is important that all samples are analysed on the day of sampling. Unfortunately, although every effort is made to provide a steady flow of samples, by the very nature of preclinical development, this is not always possible. As seen in Figure 4, large daily fluctuations in animal toxicology samples are observed. The support of clinical trials was, therefore, seen as an opportunity to fill the workload troughs by utilising the spare capacity of the laboratory. Table 4 displays a summary of the data presented in Figure 4 (with public holidays excluded). While the average number of samples for toxicology and clinical samples were similar the daily variation (expressed as a percent of standard deviation/average) for the toxicology samples is more than double that for the clinical samples. When the data are combined, the daily average is doubled but the daily variation remains very acceptable. At least 82 samples are received daily and, although the maximum number of samples at 701 is high, for the 251 days when samples were received, only on 26 occasions did the number of requests exceed 400 samples. These results support the position that the additional clinical samples have been absorbed without compromising the ability of the laboratory to support the toxicology work. In fact, by ensuring that samples are received daily, the analytical performance of the laboratory has improved since individuals remain motivated and the instruments are run more efficiently. B. Economy of Scale and Common Resources The doubling in the number of samples analysed over the past 5 years has significantly reduced the laboratory's cost per test. This has been partly achieved by increasing productivity (i.e., same staff salary for more work) and partly because a greater discount can be negotiated with both instrument and reagent Table 4 Daily Samples Received by Zeneca Laboratory Between July 1994 and June 1995 Clinical samples Toxicology samples Total samples Minimum number 52 0 82 Maximum number 342 456 701 Daily average 139 129 268 (Standard deviation, SD) 47 96 110 Daily variation (SD/average)% 33.7 74.0 40.9
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