How Biotech Firms Can Do More, with Fewer Resources

In the race to develop drugs, biotech firms can be at a disadvantage from the start. Due to smaller staff sizes and constrained R&D budgets, scientists at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to take on multiple responsibilities—work long hours, with fewer resources—just to keep pace with their big pharma counterparts.

Most scientists at SME biotech firms, for example, spend an enormous amount of time on literature search, acquisition, and management. Big pharma companies, due to its size and scale, may have research librarians and information managers on staff to handle such tasks. 

The extra burden placed on SME scientists cuts into time that could have been spent developing and testing findings, thus potentially slowing down innovation and progress. But the challenges for SMEs don't stop there. Rather, the slow start kicks off a vicious cycle that looks like this:

• Limited resources put a burden on scientists during early stage research, slowing down progress
• The slowed progress extends the daily drain on resources, increasing the overall cost of the study
• This increased R&D spend further depletes the SME’s limited resources
• And the cycle repeats

The need for efficiency becomes even more critical to compensate for inherent resource gaps and for these to not compound.

The good news? There are concrete actions SMEs can take to speed workflows, reduce costs, and enhance clinical outcomes.

We recently published a white paper that walks through four effective strategies for improving R&D efficiency—no matter your company’s size or budget. Some highlights include:

• What you can do right now to reduce your per-article spend
• How AI technologies are being used by biotech startups
• When to consider contracting with an external partner

If you’re interested in reading the white paper, you can download it here: Bridging the Resource Gap in Drug Development.