Drug developers need to change the way they allocate resources for new product development, lifecycle management, and business development and licensing — collectively known as portfolio management — if they are to improve drug development productivity, according to a panel of pharmaceutical and biotech industry leaders recently convened by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

“The traditional business model for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, which is based on companies relying on their own staffs to generate new chemical entities for further development, is not sustainable, especially in light of the rate of patent expirations, rising costs, regulatory hurdles, and innovation challenges,” said Tufts CSDD Director Kenneth I Kaitin.

He added, “While there is no single magic bullet to improving productivity, a growing number of developers recognize that partnering and other collaborative agreements will give them the flexibility they need to compete successfully.”

The executives, who met as part of the Tufts CSDD Executive Forum Roundtable, agreed that partnering offers benefits which often enhance organizational capabilities. Among them are greater intellectual fertilization, faster response to changing resource and expertise demands, the ability to decrease fixed costs, and the opportunity to build internal areas of expertise.