Build It And They Will Come

In the award-winning 1989 movie,Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner hears a voice telling him to build a baseball field on his farm in Iowa. " If you build it, he will come, ” says the voice. Against the warnings of many, and with nothing but faith, he builds the field and (spoiler alert!) his dream comes true when he meets and plays ball with his hero, baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson.While the pharmaceutical industry is not well-known for such whimsical notions, for a sector rooted in science, it takes a lot on faith. We – the thousands whose jobs depend on it and the millions of patients worldwide – trust that the industry’s scientists will find and nurture the next generation of life-changing medicines.At AstraZeneca, the science behind future medicines has been placed at the heart of company strategy, says Mark Mallon, EVP, Global Product and Portfolio Strategy, Global Medical Affairs and Global Corporate Affairs.“A key element of our approach is to really focus on scientific leadership – we definitely bring in commercial perspectives to understand the potential financial value of a medicine, but first and foremost, we focus on the unmet need and how to alleviate it, and how differentiated the medicine w ill be. We apply the commercial lenses later in the process, when things are clearer. At the start, you need to trust the scientists and, if the medicines are good, they’ll generate the value.”A core part of Mallon ’s role is to inform that process. “M...

Source: EyeForPharma - February 2, 2018 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Hugh Gosling Source Type: news