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The pharmaceuticals industry is facing an increasingly competitive future. The ever mounting internal and external pressures on the industry are forcing companies to seek new and revolutionary ways of doing business. Business as usual is not an option. |
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The drug development process is no exception as the quality and quantity of the R&D pipelines come under greater scrutiny. To successfully respond to these pressures, the heads of pharmaceutical R&D organizations need to utilize their people and associated supporting technology more effectively. Alongside this, information technology (IT) continues to develop at an astounding rate enabling many new and innovative ways of working. |
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As the volumes of information required within a drug development project grow, the need to better develop, collate and manage it has never been more important. To handle much of this information, IT is being successfully deployed but, generally, in a localized departmental or functional fashion. A more integrated use of IT across geographical and departmental boundaries is needed to provide better handling and management of the information through the entire process. This would provide information for project management to enable appropriately informed decisions in a timely manner. |
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This chapter addresses how IT is used today in managing a drug development project and introduces the major technological developments which are starting to impact this area. In view of these developments, the future of drug development projects and their management is explored. |
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II.
Today's Use of Information Technology in Drug Development |
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Information technology has fast become a crucial factor in the success of the drug development process. As a result, significant investment is now committed to its support and development. However, these IT systems have not been developed as an integrated whole. |
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IT existing within drug development can be broken down into three broad categories: |
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Personal productivity tools. This includes tools, such as word processors, graphics packages, spreadsheets, etc. that are used as stand-alone applications on the desktop to assist individuals in their day to day tasks. |
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