Jean-Pierre Garnier

Históricamente, la industria farmacéutica ha sido líder en rendimiento financiero y creación de valor. Sin embargo, en los últimos años, su historial bursátil ha suscitado dudas sobre la sostenibilidad de esa historia, junto con cuestiones fundamentales sobre la salud de la industria. De diciembre de 2000 a febrero de 2008, las 15 principales empresas del sector perdieron aproximadamente 850 000 millones de dólares en valor accionarial y el precio de sus acciones cayó de 32 veces sus beneficios, de media, a 13.

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Reprint: R0805D
From December 2000 to February 2008, the top 15 companies in the pharmaceutical industry lost roughly $850 billion in shareholder value. Although a number of factors&#8212;including the rise of generics, pricing pressures, regulatory requirements, and legal entanglements&#8212;are to blame, Garnier, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, believes that declining R&#038;D productivity is his industry&#8217;s primary problem. The way to solve it, he says, is to return power to the scientists&#8212;by reorganizing R&#038;D into highly focused groups headed by inspirational leaders, seeking the best science outside as well as inside a company, fixing broken processes, and promoting a strong culture of innovation and passion for excellence.
GSK has replaced its organizational pyramid with 12 &#8220;centers of excellence.&#8221; The company has worked to untangle the quest for breakthrough drugs from the effort to develop best-in-class offerings and has overhauled incentives for the scientists who actually make discoveries. It has also pursued contractual relationships with academia and biotech companies in a bid to secure the best science, wherever it may reside.
When the company began a sweeping reengineering of its R&#038;D, it had only two products in late-stage development. Today it has 34&#8212;the most in the industry. But much more remains to be done, the author says. Significant cost efficiencies could be achieved by offshoring clinical trials. Development of new blockbuster drugs could be simplified and accelerated if researchers targeted only a limited segment of the potential patient population and then expanded to others over time.
The innovation malaise in pharmaceuticals is not unique, Garnier says. Many other industries face the same challenges. A cultural revolution and a broad transformation of the organization are necessary first steps to rebuilding the R&#038;D engine.

Rebuilding the R&D Engine in Big Pharma

Reimpresión: R0805D De diciembre de 2000 a febrero de 2008, las 15 principales empresas de la industria farmacéutica perdieron aproximadamente 850 000 millones de dólares en valor accionarial. Si bien los culpables son varios factores (incluido el aumento de los medicamentos genéricos, las presiones sobre los precios, los requisitos reglamentarios y los enredos legales), Garnier, director ejecutivo de GlaxoSmithKline, cree que la disminución de la productividad de la I+D es el principal problema de su sector. La manera de resolverlo, afirma, es devolver el poder a los científicos, reorganizando la I+D en grupos altamente centrados encabezados por líderes inspiradores, buscando la mejor ciencia fuera y dentro de la empresa, arreglando los procesos defectuosos y promoviendo una sólida cultura de innovación y pasión por la excelencia. GSK ha sustituido su pirámide organizativa por 12 «centros de excelencia». La empresa se ha esforzado por separar la búsqueda de fármacos innovadores del esfuerzo por desarrollar las mejores ofertas de su clase y ha revisado los incentivos para los científicos que realmente hacen descubrimientos. También ha mantenido relaciones contractuales con el mundo académico y las empresas de biotecnología en un intento por garantizar la mejor ciencia, dondequiera que resida. Cuando la empresa comenzó una reingeniería radical de su I+D, solo tenía dos productos en fase avanzada de desarrollo. Hoy tiene 34, la mayor cantidad en la industria. Pero queda mucho por hacer, afirma el autor. Se podrían lograr importantes eficiencias de costes mediante la tercerización en el extranjero de los ensayos clínicos. El desarrollo de nuevos fármacos de gran éxito podría simplificarse y acelerarse si los investigadores se dirigieran únicamente a un segmento limitado de la población potencial de pacientes y, luego, se ampliaran a otros con el tiempo. El malestar por la innovación en los productos farmacéuticos no es único, afirma Garnier. Muchos otros sectores se enfrentan a los mismos desafíos. Una revolución cultural y una amplia transformación de la organización son los primeros pasos necesarios para reconstruir el motor de la I+D.

Reconstruir el motor de I+D en las grandes farmac&eacute;uticas

Reprint: R0805D From December 2000 to February 2008, the top 15 companies in the pharmaceutical industry lost roughly $850 billion in shareholder value. Although a number of factors—including the rise of generics, pricing pressures, regulatory requirements, and legal entanglements—are to blame, Garnier, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, believes that declining R&D productivity is his industry’s primary problem. The way to solve it, he says, is to return power to the scientists—by reorganizing R&D into highly focused groups headed by inspirational leaders, seeking the best science outside as well as inside a company, fixing broken processes, and promoting a strong culture of innovation and passion for excellence. GSK has replaced its organizational pyramid with 12 “centers of excellence.” The company has worked to untangle the quest for breakthrough drugs from the effort to develop best-in-class offerings and has overhauled incentives for the scientists who actually make discoveries. It has also pursued contractual relationships with academia and biotech companies in a bid to secure the best science, wherever it may reside. When the company began a sweeping reengineering of its R&D, it had only two products in late-stage development. Today it has 34—the most in the industry. But much more remains to be done, the author says. Significant cost efficiencies could be achieved by offshoring clinical trials. Development of new blockbuster drugs could be simplified and accelerated if researchers targeted only a limited segment of the potential patient population and then expanded to others over time. The innovation malaise in pharmaceuticals is not unique, Garnier says. Many other industries face the same challenges. A cultural revolution and a broad transformation of the organization are necessary first steps to rebuilding the R&D engine.

Reconstruir el motor de I+D en las grandes farmacéuticas

Resumen.

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