How can you use problem solving skills to improve drug development?

In my experience, one of the issues during drug development is the problem of incomplete addressing of Disease Complexity. Some drug development efforts may focus on symptom relief rather than addressing the underlying complexity of diseases. This approach might not provide comprehensive solutions, leaving patients with persistent unmet needs.

The main reason why drugs fail within drug development is due to lack of demonstrable efficacy, and this issue to mistakes/mishaps during the identification/validation stage. When looking at the Drug industry, we often see the: SIx-Sigma, CAPA and Risk Management approaches used. Which all include stages of problem identification. There is not a guaranteed or 'best' choice... however it can be seen that without these best-practice approaches - the outcome could be far worse.

I've discovered a valuable approach to fostering creativity in this process. By employing a range of tools and techniques, including brainstorming sessions for generating diverse ideas, mind mapping to visualize relationships and connections, prototyping to create preliminary models for evaluation, and simulation to test assumptions, we can stimulate creativity effectively. This method ensures a comprehensive exploration of potential solutions, ultimately guiding the development of innovative approaches to address the identified problem.

I will answer this question from data management perspective. Generally when you have KPIs and OKRs in data management we are bound to meet the expectations example during IA, Snapshot, DB lock. However it’s not always easy to meet the expectations during the stipulated period of time. When we are in the tangent of not meeting the expectations, we can’t make decisions at that movement which would lead for little to zero impact while achieving the goal. So it’s always better to assess the scenarios as risk and issues. When the team is aware of issues and risk we would be having a robust answer to justify the cause of delay. Having the Birds Eye view on issues and risk before hand might help the team in achieving the milestone.

When choosing the best solution, a drug development company will often look at their current pipeline and portfolio to ensure the choice they are making is beneficial in terms of timing and financially makes sense. To compare the current 'product' with the current pipeline and portfolio, a SWOT analysis is highly beneficial in helping you move forwards with the correct and conclusive information.

Ultimately, the decisions that define a drug's development will be down to the board of directors - however only can a drug move forward in the most 'efficient' way, if the board have the expertise to apply rational thinking to development issues. For example in a small drug company, there may be a lack of expertise in a specific area. On the other hand, when the company increases in size with it's portfolio, there is often a decrease in need for expertise, but more so a board with a good network, political connections and focus for the future.