Models and software for improving the profitability of pharmaceutical research

The pharmaceutical industry is highly competitive, and the discovery and development of new drugs is extremely expensive and time consuming. This paper is a contribution to the task of improving the effectiveness of pre-clinical research. Our model investigates for any given project the number of lead series which should if necessary be optimised in the search for a development compound which is sufficiently promising to proceed to clinical trials. The numbers of scientists which should be allocated to each research stage are also investigated. Two widely-applied profitability criteria are considered. Computer software designed to implement the optimisation calculations is described and shown to produce reasonable results, leading to a potentially dramatic improvement in profitability.