Knowledge networking to support medical new product development

New product development (NPD) in the pharmaceutical industry is very knowledge intensive. Knowledge generated and used during medical NPD processes is fragmented and distributed across various phases and artifacts. Many challenges in medical NPD can be addressed by the integration of this fragmented knowledge. We propose the creation and use of knowledge networks to address these challenges. Based on a case study conducted in a leading pharmaceutical company, we have developed a knowledge framework that represents knowledge fragments that need to be integrated to support medical NPD. We have also developed a prototype system that supports knowledge integration using knowledge networks. We illustrate the capabilities of the system through scenarios drawn from the case study. Qualitative validation of our approach is also presented.