October 2003
Revitalizing Drug Discovery
Hoping to squeeze more products out of a sputtering drug pipeline, pharmaceutical makers are Aiming to exploit advances in molecular biology. That means changing everything from their corporate cultures to the nature of their university collaborations.
By Stephen S. Hall
It was the kind of detail that pharmaceutical executives at $20 billion companies don't typically bother pointing out. But Jacky Vonderscher, vice president and head of drug development at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, paused while guiding a visitor through the company's spanking new research labs to sing the praises ofa hallway. True, it was open, airy, and exceptionally commodious, but all the same, it was a hallway, running through the institute's oncology and infectious-disease research laboratories. No one was likely to discover a new blockbuster drug in this hallway, any more than a scientist was likely to think up a cure for cancer while dreamily staring out the tall windows lining nearby labs.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology