Speech at the City Club of San Diego Outlines Changes for Better Medicine
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In a speech today to the City
Club of San Diego, John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., chairman and chief executive
officer of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), said that the engine of
biopharmaceutical innovation is "broken." He offered a vision for
biopharmaceutical companies to "reinvent innovation" to make the most of
today's wealth of scientific knowledge to benefit patients and address unmet
medical needs. Lechleiter's remarks came the day after his company dedicated
a state-of-the-art biotechnology center in San Diego.
"At a time when the world desperately needs more new medicines - for
everything from H1N1 to Alzheimer's disease - we're taking too long, spending
too much and producing far too little," said Lechleiter, whose company is
headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind. "Repowering pharmaceutical innovation is
an urgent need not only for our company and our industry but for our nation -
and for communities like San Diego and Indianapolis that have a huge stake in
the life sciences. We remain dependent on a society that welcomes and values
new ideas, and public policy that enables innovation to be rewarded for the
value it creates. But we also know that we need to change."
Addressing the audience of business leaders that included many from San
Diego's biotech community, Lechleiter said that biopharmaceutical research and
development reduces medical costs, improves Americans' health, and provides
many high-paying jobs. But despite its value to health care, he said, the
biopharma industry is losing its advantage and wasting its potential. Noting
the current debate on health care reform, he stressed the need for public
policy that enables and rewards medical innovation that can help rein in
health care costs and improve quality.
Lechleiter outlined major challenges the industry must overcome:
-- A loss of trust in product safety and in the honesty of pharmaceutical
businesses, for which he said "we mostly have ourselves to blame";
-- A risk-averse policy and regulatory environment that has led to high
hurdles for new medicines that could benefit patients; and
-- The pressures of the health care system, where the industry has become
an attractive target for policy makers looking for cost savings, even
as
prescription drugs account for only 10 percent of health care
spending.
Lechleiter said that instead of wasting time complaining about these external
pressures, however, biopharma companies must change the way they develop new
medicines.
He suggested three "C's" for revitalizing medical innovation:
-- Collaboration: breaking down the walls to work with other large and
small enterprises and with academic and government researchers,
worldwide;
-- Competency: employing advanced scientific tools to take advantage of
the
explosion of knowledge in human biology; and
-- Culture: putting patients and improved outcomes at the center of
research from the very beginning of the drug development process.
Lechleiter cited Lilly initiatives in each area:
-- Lilly's Fully Integrated Pharmaceutical Network (FIPNet) model to
access
ideas, resources, and talent beyond its walls, including extensive
collaboration with biotech firms and academic research centers in San
Diego;
-- The company's use of advanced analytics and clinical trial designs,
and
its new Development Center of Excellence, to streamline the
development
of new medicines, and its focus on tailored therapeutics to improve
outcomes for individual patients; and
-- Lilly's efforts to create a culture with a sharp focus on patients and
a
"new spirit of urgency."
He concluded that reinventing biopharmaceutical research and development in
these ways would help regain the public's trust, address the concerns of
regulators and demonstrate to policymakers the value that innovative medicines
can and must play.
Yesterday Lilly, one of the world's leading biopharmaceutical research
companies, opened the "Lilly Biotechnology Center - San Diego."
About Lilly
Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing
portfolio of pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its
own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific
organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers -
through medicines and information - for some of the world's most urgent
medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at
www.lilly.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements about several
investigational compounds for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and
reflects Lilly's current beliefs. However, as with any pharmaceutical product
under development, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the
process of development and regulatory review. There is no guarantee that the
products will receive regulatory approval, or that the regulatory approval
will be for the indications anticipated by the company. There is also no
guarantee that the products will prove to be commercially successful. For
further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see Lilly's
filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Lilly
undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements.
C-LLY
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20031219/LLYLOGO )
SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company
Edward Sagebiel, +1-317-433-9899 (Indianapolis), or J. Scott MacGregor,
+1-317-440-4699 (cell in San Diego), both of Eli Lilly and Company
