Thriving, Not Just Surviving, in a World of Constant Change

Oh, no. Not another pharma website, you say? We're all inundated with digital choices today, whether the special discussion groups on LinkedIn, or some of the excellent blogs out there.

This community will present the best of both worlds, with original blog posts written by some of the pharmaceutical industry's leading experts in key areas, with technical articles and webcasts, and with well informed, monitored discussions among your peers.

Our goal is to present in-depth and original information in a focused, concise, and appealing way, to help spur discussion of best-practices and focused debate.

Regulators have already spelled out the goals for R&D, manufacturing, and supply-chain management: more control over product quality and safety, better management of risk, greater agility, faster drug development, and reduced waste.

Meeting or exceeding these goals will require a different mindset and the use of modern technologies and methods, some of which were "not invented here!" Are you prepared?

Currently, poor quality costs the global pharmaceutical industry, by some estimates, more than $100 billion each year. These costs, one way or another, are passed on to the world's consumers of medicine. That is all of us.

The intangible costs, in negative public opinion, are incalculable, and so ironic, considering the contributions that pharma has made to human longevity and to improving the quality of life for so many.

Can this situation continue for much longer?

Everyone in the industry today is being pushed to achieve much more with much less, and the difficulties of doing this continue to show up in the form of supply problems (shortages of critical cancer drugs and injectables, for example), consent decrees, drug recalls, cGMP failures, and delayed launches.

Change is taking place, but slowly and gradually. It is an evolution rather than a revolution, as best-practices from one sector, one country, or one company ripple out.

Some of the industry's leading experts and change agents are writing for us, and we are recruiting more of them to inspire and challenge your assumptions and the status quo.

In the next few weeks, we'll feature articles on bioavailability challenges, outsourcing and risk management, clinical challenges, quality by design, innovative use of PAT, biosimilars, single-use biopharmaceutical processing equipment, and more by our bloggers, including Emil Ciurczak, Bikash Chatterjee, William Botha, Maik Jornitz, Michael Long, Jack Carroll, Girish Malhotra, Jack Carroll, Paul Trusty, Robert Yule, Brian Carlin, and G.K. Raju.

We'll also share insights from regulators, including Rick Friedman and Lawrence Yu of the FDA.

As this community grows, we invite you to join in discussion and share your experiences.

Best-practices and workaday insights are not trade secrets, and unlike some of the online venues available, this is a safe and commercial-free environment.

There are many different ways to take part in this discussion. I hope that you will let your voice be heard. For more information, and to let us know what topics you feel are most important, please contact me at Agnes.Shanley@ubm.com.