R D portfolio

The result, the Energy Resources R D Portfolio -or boxology inside DOE —hashown us where our investments are currently going—and where things might need to change. 

As a rule, drug companies have a research and development (R D) portfolio, i.e. a more or less well-defined collection of short- and long-term scientific projects. With the progress of medicinal sciences and changes in the pharmaceutical markets, the R D portfolio undergoes regular revisions. Typical questions at the time of portfolio revision may be ... 

Some of these questions are of a qualitative type and cannot be answered with precise figures, so that entrepreneurial decisions are required. Because decisions concerning the R D portfolio will tie up personnel and financial resources for years, they are of highest relevance to the company as a whole. In order to limit the risk, most companies compile a portfolio of R D projects that includes a mixture of long-term and short-term, partly conservative and partly high-risk R D areas. 

Once the R D portfolio is determined, questions regarding a specific research strategy need to be approached, such as ... 

How is a specific objective within the R D portfolio, e.g. the search for anxiolytic drugs with a fast onset of action (like benzodiazepines) but lacking cognitive side effects and addictive potential (unlike benzodiazepines), to be partitioned and sequenced so that individual groups within R D, with their different approaches and methods, can be integrated sensibly into the project ... 

Unlike the R D portfolio, which forms part of business policy, questions of this type are usually discussed and decided upon not by the company top management but within the specialist divisions. 

Answers to the first question can be illustrated by giving some examples (see Table 1). Eastman Chemical reengineered its innovation process and doubled the value of its R D portfolio (71—74). A team at Eastman was asked to provide (/) an assessment of the then-current innovation process, (2) a vision of the ideal process, (3) a flow chart of the modified process, (4) measures of the process, and (5) key roles and responsibilities. The team identified four main subprocesses needs identification, concept development, implementation, and market development. 

G. Tritle, E. Scriven, and A. Fusfeld. 2000. Resolving uncertainty in R D portfolios. Research Technology Management 43 47-50. 

The projects within the R D portfolio, and hence the targets to be worked upon by R D fall into the following three main categories ... 

The current R D portfolio does not allow for out of the box thinking. It needs to encourage exploratory basic research involving other approaches, such as methods of enhancing hydrogen production by radiolysis or photolysis in properly designed radiation sources. 

A zoell-p)lanned and managed pharmaceutical research and development (R D) portfolio can be defined as "The combination of a// R D projects, that based on past company and industry performance. 

Pharmaceutical coverage is skewed towards the U.S. and Europe, while the biotechnology and drug discovery publications better represent the Asian and the rest of the world markets. Recent pharmaceutical titles include U.S. Alzheimer s Disease Medications Markets, World Emerging Anti-Obesity Prescription Drug Markets, U.S. Parkinson s Disease Therapies Markets, and R D Portfolio Management. 

The second line of argument directly attributes certain changes in fins R D portfolios to product liability. The examples to support this argument are somewhat more general than those given above, perhaps because of the confidential nature of most fins R D portfolios.20 Among the examples encountered by OTA ... 

The foundation of successful positioning is an optimal R D portfolio. Often R D portfolios are derived from an assessment of individual projects/therapeutic areas by the individual units, without a really comprehensive assessment across indications. In addition, the portfolio definition and management processes are often developed with insufficient involvement of all relevant functions, i.e., research, development, production, regulatory affairs, patents/intellectual property, marketing and sales. 

The National Cancer Institute oversees a large R D portfolio that further divides research directions. Within the NCI, research is roughly divided into areas of nanodevices and nanomaterials, nanotechnology-enabled therapeutics, diagnosis and biosensors, advanced imaging, and health and safety. 

Rogers M.J., Gupta A. and Maranas C.D. 2002. Real options based analysis of optimal pharmaceutical R D portfolios, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 41, 6607-6620. 

In January 1997 the President tasked his Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to evaluate the current national energy R D portfolio and provide a strategy to ensure the USA has a program to address the nation s energy and environmental needs for the next century. 

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