Corporate intelligence in biotechnology.
'Know thy neighbor' is a critical component of today's biotechnology practice. The industry is extremely rich in science and business information, and the pace of change is dramatic. Successful participation in biotechnology will always depend on good technology, management and money. In addition, an ingredient that needs more attention is competitive information- gathering and analysis. Competitive intelligence can be defined as actionable information that requires the ability to filter and synthesize relevant knowledge for the benefit of the company. Why is this necessary? How can it be done well? What examples are there? These are good questions that are inevitably faced by all biotechnology practitioners, and some answers are provided herein.
Multinational pharmaceutical companies gather in Berlin.
The 39th Annual General Meeting of the Pharma Documentation Ring (PDR) was held in Berlin, Germany, on September 26, 1997. Common themes reported on included the impact and widespread use of intranet technology; expansion in end-user searching; experience with electronic journals; and programs for the development of electronic archiving and document management systems. Other sessions discussed aspects of chemistry systems; copyright; drug information systems on development products; information management, in-house management of databases; Intranet/Internet activities; and patents. The core topic presented at the meeting involved an overview on document delivery/electronic journals. There is considerable activity in this area by primary and secondary publishers with real momentum seen in the area of electronic document delivery services on the Internet. The 40th anniversary of the PDR will be celebrated at the upcoming AGM, to be held in Montpellier, France, September 30 October 2, 1998.
Assessment, from an industrial user perspective, of some major competitor information files on pharmaceutical development products
This paper discusses in a critical manner the spectrum of commercially available files - for in-house use - on pharmaceutical development products, which has been expanding rapidly over the past few years. Increasing degrees of sophistication in both the file contents and ways of manipulating the data are becoming more evident. A brief overview of competitor information files of this type, currently being used by PDR (Pharmaceutical Documentation Ring) member companies, is included in this appraisal. The strengths and weaknesses of some of these information resources of importance to pharmaceutical research and development, strategic planning, marketing and other functions within the industrial environment of the health care sector are outlined, using examples. A number of proposals are made for improving the coverage and content of the range of files under discussion, since optimal use of these resources can only be made if certain standards of quality control and indexing are met.