Research on pharmaceutical research and development in the bioinformatics era

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This study aims to investigate the influence of bioinformatics on the process and management of pharmaceutical research and development. The methodologies are document investigation and semi-structured interviews with researchers, managers and specialists working abroad and in Japan. The study also includes investigation about the history and the current situation of bioinformatics in the UK, France, Sweden and Japan, focusing on its relationship to the pharmaceutical R&D. In addition, the investigator researches the change of R&D process, organization and strategy in Japanese pharmaceutical companies.This study concludes that bioinformatics has changed the process of pharmaceutical R&D into the one accompanied with the molecular biological approach. This promotes the technological rationality of pharmaceutical R&D, but it does not necessarily promote the economic rationality. This is partly because bioinformatics does not cover the entire process of pharmaceutical R&D, partly because … More human creativity and organizational capabilities are necessary to evaluate the data, and partly because of the cost of bioinformatics use, the characteristics of market, and the situation of competition. All of these factors moderate the economic impact of bioinformatics on the pharmaceutical R&D. However, it is certain that bioinformatics significantly changes the R&D process of pharmaceuticals by adding to the aspect of the molecular biological mechanism (including the social shaping of the mechanism), and by facilitating the division of labor among different types of organization, such as universities, pharmaceutical companies, start-ups, and so on. This study also examines the "bridging problem" between the academic world and the business world, related to the division of labor in the area of pharmaceutical R&D.The results of this study are published as two English journal papers, four Japanese journal papers, one presentation at an international academic conference, one presentation at a national academic conference (to be held in September 2006) and a book review. Less