Rallying Pharma's Rebels - article in Forbes

Very interesting article over at the Forbes Magazine Website. You can read it here.

The article discusses the ideas of Bernard Munos who had worked in sales for 30 years at Eli Lilly.
According to the article, Bernard, "has spent the past decade studying pharmaceutical innovation. He thinks he has an answer to what ails Big Pharma: Cut research and development.

That's just part of his prescription for changing how medicines are invented. Munos says the drug industry needs to spend research money in an entirely new way. Instead of chasing improvements to blockbuster drugs that help lots of people a little bit, it should focus on true breakthroughs that help patients a lot. And rather than do the research in-house, companies should close their labs and outsource the work to tiny, nimble startups that can explore bigger, crazier ideas."

The article concludes with a list of Munos' Laws:

1. Regain the trust of physicians, regulators and payers.
2. Stop chasing blockbusters, which help lots of people a little bit,
and start chasing breakthroughs, which help patients a lot.
3. Do what works. Stop trying to manage drug discovery with Six Sigma processes.
4. Lower costs with collaborative research.
5. Mitigate risk by developing lots of potential breakthroughs, not by
trying to develop projects that seem low-risk. History says the risk
is never low.
6. Don't move anything into human trials unless it is a potential breakthrough.
7. Cut research and development.

While I don't agree with everything Mr. Munos proposes, I do think he raises some very valid points.