Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
481407 | European Journal of Operational Research | 2008 | 17 Pages |
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.