I was honored to participate in the #STATBreakthrough Summit East in a provocative dialogue with Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D. and Rose Loughlin, moderated by Damian Garde. Our discussion focused on the future of R&D, a topic we all feel passionately about as we work to identify and progress potential new medicines and vaccines to continue transforming human health.
Science moves very fast now – but the speed of breakthroughs doesn’t always keep the same pace. Turning those scientific discoveries into actionable insights for drug development is where the real challenge often lies.
At Pfizer, one way we work to address this is to continually refine our processes to be at peak efficiency and speed – without ever sacrificing safety or rigor. The last five years have been an inflection point in the development space – moving much faster from an idea to the start of human studies. So, we are starting to see that what used to feel like a marathon can now be a sprint. For patients and for those of us advancing breakthroughs, time is life – when the distance to run is long, it’s more challenging, but that distance is getting smaller thanks to rapidly evolving knowledge, emerging technologies, and their combined application across the R&D spectrum. Organizations must stay at the forefront of biology insights and have the operational flexibility to identify and implement breaking/disruptive technologies in smart, responsible ways.
We are arguably in one of the most exciting scientific moments of all time and I believe the prospects of what we could achieve for human health in the next decade are truly breathtaking.
Thank you, STAT, for convening us and giving us the opportunity to talk about what unites all of us in the health innovation ecosystem: How we can aim higher, work smarter, and do better for patients everywhere.
Head of US Federal Affairs and Policy at AstraZeneca
2moWhat an inspiring group of leaders, each playing an important role in advancing next generation science and medicine! 🌄