2015年4月20日讯 /生物谷BIOON/ --作为一个技术密集型产业，生物医药产业的核心竞争力在于研发。而对于研发的不断推进也促使生物医药产业的蒸蒸日上。那么，现如今生物医药产业的研发是否已经达到了极值？最近来自著名调查公司William Blair的工作人员对133名工作在生物医药产业研发第一线的科研人员进行了一项调查。
此次的调查对象涵盖了不同规模的生物医药公司，结果显示，几乎一半的受访者表示如何能够更充分分析、应用现有的研发数据是今后改善生物医药产业研发水平的最大机会。
有意思的是来自中型以上生物医药公司的受访者在这一方面有着高度一致。52%的中型公司研发人员和41%的大型公司研发人员都认为现有研发体系对临床研究数据的利用度还有很大提升空间。与之相对的，仅有38%的小型生物医药公司研发人员赞同这一选项，在小型公司的受访者中40%的研发人员认为更多的外包研发能够促进研发水平的进一步提升。
此外，来自中小型医药公司的受访者中有20%的研发人员认为现有研发体系已经达到了最优水平，而这一比例在大型生物医药公司中仅占到13%，显然后者更倾向于相信对研发的改进仍然任重道远。
此外，调查报告中还涉及到了现有CRO系统和IT企业的合作对目前临床研究数据分析模型的影响。
近年来，随着临床研究规模的不断扩大，导致研究人员需要处理的数据量呈几何级增长，许多IT公司如谷歌、微软和Apple等都纷纷跨界进入这一领域。这也使得生物医药产业和互联网产业迅速交融形成了一个新型领域。而此次的调查结果也向广大生物医药公司暗示未来这一领域或许将对生物医药产业研发产生深远影响。
详细英文报道：
A survey by analysts at William Blair has found that biopharma R&D staffers think making better use of existing data is their best hope of improving productivity. Almost half of the 133 respondents to the survey said the topic was the biggest remaining opportunity to improve R&D.
The finding was largely consistent across companies of different sizes, with 52% of respondents from midsized companies and 41% of people from large pharma listing it as their top priority. Only small pharma companies saw bigger opportunities elsewhere, with the 38% who see the most potential in making better use of data trailing the 40% who advocate for more outsourcing. Increased outsourcing was the second most popular option for medium and large pharma companies.
Almost 20% of respondents from small and midsized pharmas said R&D processes have already been optimized, a bullish sentiment that was shared by fewer of their peers in larger companies. Even so, 13% of respondents from Big Pharma seemingly think their R&D operations are perfect already. When these bold outliers are removed from the equation, the survey makes for encouraging reading for CROs and IT vendors that have hitched the future of their businesses to data-driven models of R&D.
Discussions around the potential of such models have intensified in recent months in the wake of LabCorp's ($LH) buyout of Covance and Quintiles' ($Q) alliance with Quest Diagnostics ($DGX). Some have doubts about whether the incorporation of central lab data into clinical trial planning will have a significant effect on productivity, but biopharma companies are certainly open to hearing out the argument.
"We believe these responses show clients' willingness to try a different approach to improve the clinical trial process," the William Blair analysts wrote. The survey found around one third of people think LabCorp is best placed to streamline trials through data analytics. Quintiles trailed with almost one fifth of the vote, although the respondents gave their answers before it teamed up with Quest.