New Models Will Drive New Approaches To Clinical Trial Data

By Ed Miseta, Chief Editor, Clinical Leader

PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) has released a report analyzing the top issues and trends that will impact pharma companies and the health care industry in 2014. Covering everything from the Affordable Care Act to venture capital outlays, the report details the trends and health issues for pharma professionals to watch in the coming year. I spoke with Anup Kharode, director of pharmaceutical R&D advisory services for PwC, about two of those trends, which involve healthcare innovation and clinical trial data/site selection.

In regard to innovation, Kharode believes a new paradigm is emerging regarding how pharmaceutical companies will look at drug discovery. “Embracing past failures is an idea that we feel has been getting more attention from pharmaceutical firms,” he says (see also The Art of the Turnaround in Pharma, Life Science Leader, October 2013). “Pharma execs want their drug development to be done in an optimal way.  To do that, firms need to be able to understand if there is going to be a market for a product. It is no longer efficient for pharma to invest a lot of time, money, and resources in a drug and then let the fate of the product approval process dictate whether or not it is successful.”