March 1996 marked the fifth anniversary of the MIT Program on the Pharmaceutical Industry (POPI), a multidisciplinary research center established with generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. POPI is one of several such Sloan-supported centers at universities across the United States, each focused on a specific industry. Like these other "centers of excellence," POPI has taken seriously our charge: to create an interactive research center to explore the factors that drive, constrain, and enhance the performance and competitiveness of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Over these five years, POPI has set and continues to make significant progress toward some ambitious goals. We set out to develop industry expertise among the faculty of the MIT Schools of Science, Engineering, and Management, and today can point to success as the catalyst for ongoing research that assemble high-quality, multidisciplinary faculty representing the departments of chemistry, biology, chemical engineering, economics, and management. These researchers are examining crucial strategic areas facing drug and biotechnology companies today:
In addition to our research program, we set out to develop new curricula and educational programs relevant to the pharmaceutical industry, and today attract hundreds of industry professionals to our seminars and courses where relevant POPI research-bringing a new level of understanding of the changes occurring within the industry-is presented and discussed.
MIT graduate students continue to play a meaningful role in POPI research and bring their new expertise both to industry and to other universities upon graduation. This is particularly valuable because of our continued focus on research and curricular projects that include genuine collaboration of faculty from different discipline bases, and/or commitments from individual researchers to cross lines and develop competence in related fields.
POPI's relationship with the industry itself continues to grow stronger. We have had extensive access to senior management, middle management, and technical professionals of large and small pharmaceutical firms and other types of firms that comprise this industry. Senior executives from industry and leading government officials serve as members of POPI's Advisory Committee. POPI directors, faculty, and students have interacted with dozens of firms and have had contacts with well more than one hundred others as part of our ongoing research.
In the past year, POPI has joined the growing number of research centers offering access to information via the World Wide Web. Our web site will be expanded in the coming months.
Pharmaceutical industry analysts often refer to a company's pipeline, the succession of new products advancing through the sequential stages of drug research and development. A firm's ability to develop and introduce to market a stream of innovative new compounds with pharmacologic activity-hence the pipeline-is central to its business performance and competitiveness. Successful firms have strong pipelines; marginal firms are weak in this area.
This pipeline analogy provides a framework for integrating the various POPI research components. To illustrate the contribution of POPI research projects to achieving an understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, we identify the key functional areas of the firms-drug development, manufacturing, and management of the marketplace-and concentrate our research activities accordingly. We consider each such area to afford opportunities for individual firms to improve their practices and enhance their competitiveness.
POPI research projects described in the annual report are categorized according to their "place" in the pipeline. In Chapter 2, projects are presented in one of three sections:
The report goes on to present chapters detailing POPI's educational activities, publications, and structure.
Figure 1. Pipeline
Please send comments and suggestions to popi-www@mit.edu