ABSTRACT
Pharma companies have been going through a number of major changes as their environment has shifted especially over the last decade. These shifts have had a profound impact on the environment under which projects are undertaken. In many pharma organisations business projects are only loosely connected to the bigger picture of the business strategy. This chapter explores the practical aspects of strategic decision-making in the pharma industry. One of the most difficult issues which pharma companies face is setting a drug development strategy. In drug development we see a close fusion between strategic decision making and project management. The pharma industry is continually looking at ways to decrease the time to bring a drug to the market. Planning and managing the clinical trial programmes is the most expensive and time-consuming part of developing a drug. Many pharma companies have developed in-house project management systems or have purchased commercial systems to plan, manage development programmes and track the progress of studies.
