ABSTRACT
The broad goal of research planning is to improve the drug discovery and development process and increase Research Planning and Development (R&D) productivity. The changing nature of the drug discovery process has reenforced the importance of biomedical scientists and clinicians. In the final analyses, the payoff from good project/program selection is a reduction in the time between initial discovery and eventual commercial introduction of attractive innovations. In order to encourage mutual trust, more widespread participation, and decision making down in the organization, as well as to develop "big picture" concepts emphasizing group effort and achievement paralleling the Japanese approach, many pharmaceutical research operations have organized task-oriented project teams. As the overall research process is described, including key factors that influence its success, special attention is directed to the role of clinical investigation and investigators, as well as emerging trends and patterns that influence R&D planning, including the clinical research phases.
