When we did the analysis, we found that if you measured us by the number of things that we were doing, i.e. the number of candidates that we were putting into the clinic or the number of IND's that we were filing, we were the 2nd most productive company in the industry.
But if you measured us by the number of launches, we were the industry's 2nd least productive company. There was a disconnect there. Our science was getting rewarded, but no medicines were coming out at the other end.
For example, we used to have so many backups in the pipeline... Backup #1,2,3,4,5,6... and then of course all those backups had exactly the same probability as the lead molecule! It's the quality of what you work on, not the quantity of what you do. We don't do backups anymore."
2. The 5R Framework. "Based on the data that we analysed, we found five things that would improve the probability of running a successful programme. The 5Rs may seem pretty obvious, pretty intuitive, yet actually quite difficult to execute on consistently."
Right Target • How well do you understand the biology of the target? • How well do you understand the disease pathophysiology, how it connects/relates to path you’re trying to modulate? • What genetic validation do you have in pre-clinical animal models or in human genetics?
Right Tissue When you have a molecule, whether it’s a monoclonal antibody, a small molecule, or whatever the drug modality, demonstrate first of all in the preclinical models that you can engage the target and understand your PK/PD relationships.
Right Safety Establish safety as far as possible in humanised systems before initiating clinical trials.
Right Patient Find the patient population in which your medicine is most likely to work, because if It doesn't work in that patient population, it's not going to work on a broader patient population.
Right Commercial Why would anyone want to take or prescribe the medicine and why would anyone want to reimburse it?
3. Reward your Scientists for Killing Hypotheses. "Are your scientists asking killer questions to try, not just to validate, but *invalidate* your hypothesis? We celebrate good kills every day. We are passionate about it!
Failing early is important because it means you haven’t spent too much money and you don't just keep on. Before, we were very good at finding ways of getting to the next hurdle just for the sake of getting the next hurdle, because that’s what we were being measured on..."
4. From Personal Best to World Records. "If you think of what we do as a competitive sport... our view of innovation was more of personal best rather than world records. But innovation should mean you are cutting edge, you make discoveries rather than follow discoveries.