Read the latest blog posts from IDBS, a leading provider of biopharma research, development and manufacturing data management software.
Accelerating tech transfer is vital with new precision medicine and increasing regulatory scrutiny of product quality and management of external partners.
Maintaining the balance between compliance and efficiency is what will set a CRO apart in the highly competitive outsourcing landscape and inspire the sponsor’s confidence.
Drug sponsors value – and rely on – the work that CROs perform. CROs have a chance to up their data management game. How can they ensure data quality?
Learn the importance of enterprise control in getting CGTs to market – and the critical systems that enable this control in cell-based therapy manufacturing.
Now that we know what a microservice is and why it’s important, let’s explore deploying and managing cloud microservices in GxP environments.
What is a microservice? Let’s explore the term’s meaning, the benefits and how it can help boost your data security.
BioProcess International took place in Vienna this year, with talks centred around six main streams including cell line development and engineering, cell culture, recovery and purification, viral safety, cell and gene therapy as well as smaller sessions for manufacturing strategy and Industry 4.0 and vaccine manufacturing.
It’s been a busy year so far. And we’re only at the start of April! Find out what we’ve been up to in this blog.
For those of us who develop software that supports the biopharmaceutical/life science industry, the challenges and opportunities in digital transformation are painfully obvious and it can be easy to forget that not everyone sees it that way. Let’s try another way…
While 2021 was another challenging year in many respects, the life science industry still managed some notable achievements.
The global community await to hear what the accelerated response to climate change will be from the COP26 Summit starting on Sunday in Glasgow. Here at IDBS we know that identification of true reductions in environmental impact through process modelling and Life Cycle Assessment can only be made with access to quality data. Find out more in our blog.
There was a flurry of activity on social media in June when John Erickson et al. published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering on end-to-end collaboration to transform development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals.
One of the lasting legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic is heightened awareness of manufacturing challenges and supply chain vulnerabilities in the biopharma industry and the impact this can have on public health. Issues have occurred at every stage of the supply chain, from the availability of raw materials to quality concerns with active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and finished dosage forms and restrictive cold chain requirements.
In a recent Forbes article, Danaher’s Chief Science officer, Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, described the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as follows:“I believe the biopharma business model has fundamentally changed.
The public consciousness has been flooded with awareness of the previously niche concerns of quality control in drug manufacturing.
The global pandemic is shining a spotlight on the power of biologics, both vaccines and antibody therapeutics, to prevent serious infections and treat disease.
The ultimate goal in the biopharma space, especially for vaccine manufacturers, is producing safe and effective therapies faster, and at a lower cost. Many professionals still believe that their competitive edge relies on technical improvement, but it’s more complicated than that…
In response to the outbreak, governments around the world have put strict measures in place to limit the spread of the virus – Italy was the first country to order a country-wide lock down, France closed its borders and PM…
In recent years, gene therapies, gene-modified cell therapies and cell therapies, collectively known as ‘Advanced Therapies’, have rapidly become an integral part of the R&D programs of many Biopharmaceutical companies. This is illustrated by some of the key trends…
Western CROs continue to up their game. They are offering unique services in a marketplace where the big CROs of the east are providing an unsurpassed scale of resourcing to support the externalization of discovery services. I believe there is…
Want to know a secret? In September we hosted a very large group of IDBS customers from the US at i3 Nashville. Customers from every R&D industry sharing experiences, lessons learned, and business challenges. So, are you going to…
We sat down with Chelsea Hyde, Field Marketing Manager for North America at IDBS, to find out what i3 means to IDBS, and what to expect at future events. What does i3 mean? When we were coming up with…
We sat down with Christian Marcazzo, General Manager at IDBS, to find out what the benefits of attending i3 are, and how it fits into his vision for IDBS. What are some of the benefits to customers attending the i3…
The biopharmaceutical industry continues to grow and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Last year, we talked about different aspects of the biopharmaceutical industry. These touched on several trends from the importance of data and the extensive use…
We sat down with J.T. Kaminski, Customer Success Manager at IDBS, to find out what i3 means to IDBS, and what he sees for the event’s future. What’s the most eye-opening thing you’ve seen at i3 last year? I’d…
Eighty-five. That’s the number of warning letters the FDA issued in 2018 alone. And of those letters, 49% were surrounding data integrity. This highlights a serious issue: there are data integrity deficiencies in the lab environment. With so many warning…
We sat down with Brady Haggstrom, Product Manager at IDBS, to find out what i3 means, and its highlights. What do you look forward to most about coming to i3 events? I look forward most to talking with customers and hearing about their challenges, what…
In our last blog post, we took a dive into the 2019 draft of the ICH M10 Bioanalytical Method Validation Guideline, the changes made, and how they affect scientists working at the bench. In this follow-up post, we’ll see…
The International Council of Harmonisation (ICH) has released a draft new guidance for bioanalytical method validation, and it has created quite a buzz, exemplified in a webinar hosted by Bioanalysis Zone. A panel of experts came together to discuss…
Historically, small molecule pharmaceutical products dominated the medical drugs market, from treatments for diabetes to broad-spectrum antibiotics, they worked, and the pharma industry bloomed. However, in today’s day and age, as the prevalence of different types of diseases and…
The importance of data integrity The research and development (R&D) industry has a responsibility to ensure the drugs they produce are safe, effective and high quality, and data integrity is key to making that happen. But it’s not always…
When you think of a medication, is the active ingredient the first thing that pops into your head, or perhaps the name of the drug? You’re not alone. The active ingredient of a medicine gets all the attention, which…
Science is based on evidence, but the scientific research field is facing a reproducibility crisis. The science journal Nature published a survey in 2016, which demonstrated more than 70% of researchers could not replicate their peers’ studies in well-controlled…
Getting a product to market has always been a challenge. Discovering something new is just the beginning. After that, there’s the issue of securing the funding to bring the idea to life – the research, manufacturing processes, and pushing it…
The biologics market – medicines made from biological living systems through biotechnology – is trending. There’s no doubt about that. And the numbers back it up. According to a report by Market Research Future, the global biologics market…
Organizations in the biologics landscape face several challenges in the race to get their product to market, including handling their data efficiently. We have a solution… Industry growth presents challenges The continued growth in the biologics sector has…
When one thinks of the pharma and biopharma markets, one thing stands out – growth. In recent years, driven by necessity, advances in technology and ultimately funding, there has been a focused effort to transform our approach to medicine…
E-WorkBook is an electronic lab notebook that forms part of the IDBS cloud-based solution to manage your scientific data. Designed to replace the traditional paper lab notebook, information is stored electronically and so can be accessed and searched effortlessly…
We are just two weeks away from our Early Bird deadline for tickets to our i3 events in Nashville and London this year. Book before 31st May and you’ll get 40% off our Standard or All Access Passes. Don’t…
The biologics landscape is modern and ever-changing – and it needs innovative solutions to keep up with growing demand. What’s needed is a far-reaching and comprehensive solution, that helps scientists effortlessly execute workflows and provides decision-driving insight. We…
Without heavy investment in research and development (R&D), the millions of new and innovative medical technologies, drugs and delivery systems developed each year would simply not happen. In 2018, the UK’s medical funding body – the Medical Research Council…
In this expert interview, Debbie Barklamb, Account Manager with IDBS, explains how she works with our customers, coordinating resources to help them successfully onboard IDBS software. This includes helping new customers adopt and roll out our software and ensuring…
In the past, searching for experiment data has been a challenge in the R&D space. Science laboratories can have hundreds of employees and perform an enormous number of experiments each year. While a lab notebook is indispensable to scientific…
A record number of visitors attended this year event, that ran from 2nd-5th April in Vienna. Those who attended were not only treated to the beautiful city views but also the most exciting and recent innovations advances in the…
Are you involved in, or researching, novel bioanalytical solutions and innovations in drug discovery and development? Then WRIB is the place to be this April. Built on the success of the previous annual meetings, the 13th WRIB offers discussions…
Looking to explore the latest advancements in scientific processes and technology across the bioprocessing world? BioProcess International Europe this April has it all and much, much more. At IDBS, we’re delighted to sponsor, speak and participate at this conference…
The date when the UK should be leaving the EU, colloquially known as ‘Brexit’, is approaching fast. Despite the nature of this event, there is still a great deal of uncertainty around how it will happen, when and if…
In bioanalysis firms, there’s a lot of pressure to do more with less. This means there’s a huge focus on increasing throughput in the laboratory, and contracting the QC timeline – either by the training of scientists or the…
In 2001, the FDA published the first version of the Bioanalytical Method Validation (BMV) Guidance for the bioanalysis industry. Over the next 17 years, the FDA would come out with another draft document, followed by a final version in…
Companies are facing increasing pressure to get drugs to market faster on a smaller budget. As a result, organizations are looking to capture data more efficiently and do the most with their data. SaaS provides a solution, tackling some…
Maximizing the use of IT through a digital transformation program is undoubtedly challenging for any sector. While many sectors have undergone this process by putting a data-driven approach in place, this has yet to be fully realized in pharmaceuticals…
How data, AI and machine learning can open the doors to drug discovery and advance personalized medicine. Developing personalized and precision medicine is the next breakthrough for drug developers – particularly for cancer treatments. A recent review paper, from…
i3 is our annual customer and user group meeting here at IDBS. Each year the event brings our community of R&D and IT professionals together to ignite insights, develop ideas, and advance scientific innovation for the future. Each day at…
In this interview, Unjulie discusses the challenges in the current biologics scene, from business problems through to generating data in the laboratory, and explains how The IDBS Bioprocess Solution can help tackle these issues. Rising competition in the biologics development…
Sadly, Bio Innovation is over for another year. But from our perspective, the event just keeps getting better and better! We feel this is testament to both the effort of the GBX summit team, especially Patrick Basanez for his…
IDBS Blog | 22nd January 2019 i3 2018 saw three days of inspiration, innovation, and powerful networking with IDBS experts and fellow IDBS customers. Want to be a part of it this year? Save the date and get ready for…
Recent years have seen automated technologies, such as machine learning and AI, really starting to take off. While these technologies are growing in popularity, we need to have realistic expectations. In an ideal world we could have voice-activated computers…
The global pharma industry has always been cautious when it comes to adopting new technologies. Returns on investment from research efforts are volatile and restrictive, ever-changing regulations add to a culture that is already slow to adopt. Despite this…
On October 24th, we welcomed our customers to our annual IDBS User Group Meeting: i3. This year, we chose a beautiful lakeside resort just outside of Austin, Texas, writes Christine Zubris, IDBS Customer Success Manager. While Austin experienced the…
Few technologies have leapt from science fiction to fact as quickly as artificial intelligence (AI). After years of build-up, and of promise and excitement, the high level of AI maturity, driven by high-performance computing power, is now ubiquitous. And…
Usually organizations implement new IT strategies and adopt new technologies to keep ahead of the competition. But one charity is implementing a cloud-first strategy with a difference. The aim? To cease operations completely. Julie Dodd, Director of Digital Transformation…
In September, Christian Marcazzo joined us as Vice President and General Manager. Christian will be responsible for the day-to-day running of IDBS and growing the Informatics Solutions business of the Danaher Life Sciences Platform. Watch the interview below to…
Disaster recovery and backups are an often overlooked, but critical, component of managing an enterprise application. Both options are required to prevent catastrophic loss of data. Disaster recovery requires either off-site or multi-site storage – and organizations typically backup…
As the biologics market matures at an expected growth of 7-9% through to 2022 – reaching $3.8bn, it substantially influences the CMO/CDMO market with notable mergers and acquisitions in the space. This year we’ve seen Catalent’s acquisition of Juniper…
The biopharma space is constantly evolving thanks to the scientific community’s commitment to innovation to seek out new cures and ways to improve our health. These innovations, however, are often held back due to the often-outdated nature of commercial…
Pharma and biotech companies have invested heavily in externalized research, development, and manufacturing in recent years – but their methods of sharing critical data are still rarely fit for purpose. Typically, collaborator data is simply packaged up in a…
Despite shrinking growth in the pharmaceutical market, from double to single digit growth rates, demand for contract research organization (CRO) services is growing rapidly, according to the Business Research Company’s (BRC’s) 2018 CRO Global Market Report. Affirming CROs are on…
In August we attended The BioProcessing Summit 2018 in Boston. The event saw more than 1,000 bioprocess professionals and business leaders from around the globe gather to share practical ideas and solutions on tackling today’s bioprocess challenges. Now in its…
In October 2017, we hosted our first ever i3 conference in North America. We enjoyed the event so much that i3 is back again this year – and this time we’re in Austin! So, why should you come to…
Pharmaceutical companies are under escalating pressure to significantly increase the number of drugs that reach the market within a shorter timeframe, but lack the infrastructure to do so. More than ever, companies need to partner with outside firms to…
At the dawn of bioprocess development, biopharmaceutical manufacturing, upstream and downstream primary processing were worlds apart. This is because, in the pre-biotech days of industrial bioprocessing, the professionals in upstream, usually biologists, microbiologists…
Understanding the volume and complexity of data created throughout the scientific process is key. Biopharmaceutical companies generate a vast amount of high-value process data that is typically stored in paper records, databases, electronic files and in the heads of…
These are exciting times in biologics. Since 1995, applications for biotech patents have increased 25% year-on-year and biologics currently make up more than 50% of drugs in development. And, with many big deals already on the ledger this year…
The quality of your bioanalytical process will determine the quality of your study and with the right solution, the process can flow seamlessly.
Strict regulations, tight budgets and changing compliance needs are forcing pharma companies to employ new technology. Many are turning to cloud technology because it provides true scalability and helps free up time and resources that can be refocused on…
Whilst capturing and recording valid and accurate data is important for any company in any sector, it’s essential for businesses operating in the Research and Development (R&D) industry. Recording and working with data that could potentially contribute to life-changing…
The amount of data that’s generated every day is staggering. According to an article published in Forbes magazine: “The volume of data is exploding. More data has been created in the past two years than in the entire previous…
In his three-blog series based on interviews with industry experts, Scott Hluhanich explores the state of pharma. In his final blog, Scott looks at whether a single platform could be the way forward for your organization. Informatics platforms have…
In his three-blog series based on interviews with industry experts, Scott Hluhanich explores the state of pharma. In this second blog, Scott examines the benefits of adopting an integrated platform. It doesn’t matter if you are a large pharma…
In his three-blog series based on interviews with industry experts, Scott Hluhanich explores the state of pharmaceutical drug development. In this first blog, Scott examines the market challenges and obstacles businesses face when trying to get to market faster…
Following Fierce Biotech’s story revealing $10 million has been raised to bring a $4,000 lab robot into the mainstream, we delve into the driving factors that are required to make process and system automation commonplace in the pharma and…
The Biologics sector is continuing to grow at an accelerated pace – and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Just recently, Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD) announced the expansion of its GMP analytical laboratory, nearly doubling its analytics…
As you’ll probably know, today is International Women’s Day. This is a global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Women have played important and influential roles in the sciences and continue to do so here…
As you may have seen in the news last week, a major security vulnerability was announced potentially allowing unauthorised individuals to gain access to privileged information via a vulnerability with modern day processors. The announcement was made early Thursday…
Getting a data security strategy right is critical for any business. In the final blog of his data security series, Scott Hluhanich explains what you need to know. As presented by Gartner in the Top Security Trends for 2014-2015…
Insider threats present an urgent problem which can be addressed with the help of appropriate technology. In the second blog of his data security series, Scott Hluhanich explores where these threats are originating. Sharing data through email and consumer-grade…
Data security is a hot topic for all businesses. In his first blog of three, Scott Hluhanich explains how security incidents are on the rise and discusses how much these incidents are costing businesses. In the 2015 US State…
The capabilities of Laboratory Information Systems (LIMS) have improved considerably in recent years, with more ways to manage samples and associated data. With the right LIMS, organizations can automate workflows, integrate instruments, produce results in a faster time, and…
Security is an obvious concern for research organizations. Moving data in and out of the building requires trust by all parties, which is difficult, especially when sharing data across different countries, offices and individuals. Before engaging in any collaborative…
With teams under pressure to develop new products faster and at a lower cost, it’s easy to see the appeal of robots for R&D organizations. Most lab processes are geared around the regular 9-5 working day, but with a…
In October, IDBS hosted our first ever i3 Community Forum in North America. You may have heard about it, or even attended. Usually, we hold three small regional forums across the region, but this year we tried something different…
In his epic novel Ulysses, author James Joyce wrote that mistakes “are the portals of discovery”. He’s wrong. Okay, it’s slightly contentious (and perhaps slightly ambitious) to call out a literary giant, but hear me out… In the pharmaceutical…
The world we live in is ever-changing – just take a look at how technology has advanced in recent years. Some readers will even remember a time before the internet (oh the horror!), and yet, in a relatively small…
For R&D organizations, data is the new GOLD. Historically, data has been captured in silos, so harnessing the power of data can be tricky – particularly for bioprocess organizations. Bioprocess data tends to be far more contextually rich than…
It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that chemists are creatures of habit. I should know: I am one. And, in the same way that many people have a favourite food, pair of shoes, or season of the year, chemists…
Our popular Community Forums have been running for several years now, so we decided to mix things up a bit for our latest event in Brussels, at Solvay’s HQ! We transformed the event into a VIP interactive workshop with…
We are pleased to announce that we’ve made the shortlist at the Cloud Excellence Awards 2017, in the ‘Most Innovative Cloud Product or Service’ category. Although we’re up against some pretty fierce competition, it’s great to see that The…
We came across this whitepaper from Amazon Web Services (AWS), outlining their thoughts on GxP and exploring the compliance and efficiency benefits of rethinking regulated workloads. It’s an interesting read, and ties in nicely with our GxP offering so we…
In almost every facet of modern life, people are absent-mindedly producing and consuming data at an ever increasing speed. But the staggering quantity of data that is generated and utilized by an R&D organization needs careful management and thoughtful consideration…
A recent article in National Geographic Magazine, Why we Lie: The Science Behind our Deceptive Ways by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, explores how and why scheming and dishonesty are part of what makes us human. We lie for all kinds of reasons…
We have added E-WorkBook Request, our work request management platform, to The E-WorkBook Cloud! Naturally, we’re pretty excited, but we also know what you’re thinking: “So, what is it? What does it do? And why should I care?” Quite…
We are delighted to announce that The IDBS E-WorkBook Cloud has been named Cloud Product of the Year at the National Technology Awards in London. It is great to see our commitment to enabling organizations to operate faster, more…
So, you think you need a LIMS to execute your solutions workflows? You’re not the only one. For years, a LIMS has been one of the ‘go to’ products to support laboratory operations. But, although the features of laboratory…
Despite breaking global sales records in 2015, biopharmaceutical companies are witnessing a slowing in growth and are under increasing pressure from payers and competitors to reduce costs. So, what’s the solution? Cost reduction initiatives often focus on process improvement…
Outsourcing partnerships have changed dramatically over the past 20 years. Pharmaceutical drug discovery companies have finally embraced subcontracting as a way to harness strategic collaboration and expertise, and not just as a source of cost-effective labor. Outsourcing partners have…
When you think about research, it’s easy to overlook all the experiments that didn’t work or provided the wrong outcome. Just as chemical elements have an equal and opposite charge for protons and electrons, research results come in both…
From May 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will require all new drug and biological product submissions to be sent electronically. It’s a pretty big change – but are you really ready? And do you know how…
The 4th and 5th April saw the 5th annual Paperless Lab Academy conference take place in sunny Barcelona. Once again the idyllic location delivered, with wonderful weather welcoming delegates to the first day of the conference! The fact that…
Bringing time to market forward by a week can reduce out of pocket expenses by $6 million. Yes, really. $6 million. It seems so simple doesn’t it? Save time and save money. The questions is: ‘How?’ Rather than saving…
If you have been a scientist in a good laboratory practice (GLP) setting long enough, you’ll be familiar with certain buzzwords that carry ominous connotations – words like raw data, traceability, and the even scarier deviation. There is even…
Ok, let’s cut to the chase: more and more people say that Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) are the “paper notebook of the future” and they’re not wrong! But with so many 3-letter acronyms in the world of scientific and R&D…
Today we announced we have now added a validatable service to The E-WorkBook Cloud platform. But what does this really mean for our customers? In short, the validation services we’ve been offering to our on-premise customers for over 30 years…
As you may have seen in the news last week, AWS experienced some issues with the infrastructure it uses for some of its IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) platform. Whilst IDBS was only minimally affected by this outage, we thought…
So, you think to yourself: “I need an ELN!” You see the use of “ELN” here, “E notebook” there and occasionally the term “paper-on-glass” somewhere over there. How do you begin to start looking for the right electronic solution…
It’s an age-old debate: are two heads really better than one? At IDBS, we’ve long advocated bringing in the best possible expertise to make something better… but don’t just take our word for it. Fruitful partnerships are everywhere you look…
When R&D data is managed in silos, it’s inevitable that transcription errors and inaccuracies will occur especially when moving data between systems, people and organizations. The problems seem obvious, don’t they? When data is spread across multiple systems, the ability…
Our purpose: ‘To provide the best cloud-based R&D technology and solutions to the world’s most forward-thinking companies, helping them solve global challenges.’ When you go to work each day, we think you should be able to answer these three simple…
Outsourcing software development is a well-established industry trend. After all, “there’s always more to build than we have time or resources to build – always” (Jeff Patton,User Story Mapping, 2014). Outsourcing partners can be found all over the world, but…
Since the release of the E‑WorkBook 10.1.2 Chemistry ELN, we have been busy augmenting the core features of the stoichiometry table. One of the enhancements we have recently implemented is the calculations of solvent concentration, with the ability to determine…
We’re very pleased to announce that the E-WorkBook Chemistry ELN has been released with v10.1.2 of E‑WorkBook in July. Considering we started from just design documents in January, the chemistry development team has worked hard to provide the user with…
IDBS has been developing a number of strategic partnerships over the past three years. This is part of our core strategy to ensure that our customers get the most appropriate tools and solutions to support their very diverse and scientifically…
We recently hosted a Special Interest Group meeting in Munich where, with a group of customers, we discussed how users can really get the most out of E-WorkBook. We focussed primarily on the web client, and explained how users can…
We were delighted to attend the Elrigfr conference in May, where we shared IDBS experience about Lab Automation, Formulation & Phenotypic screening. At the conference, we particularly enjoyed the Phenotypic Screening session, which featured presentations from NeoVirTech, Servier and…
We frequently store and update data within IT systems. But, do we ever truly consider what it will take to find this data when we need it again – in a week, a month, or even a year later? Consider…
Earlier we wrote about the auto-text feature we provide in E-Workbook’s electronic notebook for chemists, which allows you to add predefined phrases to the procedure write-up with a single click. This functionality is now even more powerful! These phrases consist…
Scientific research is changing. In order to increase the time to market, researchers want to break down the silos between departments, simplify the way they work and focus on doing science. However, their biggest frustration (especially in chemical research) is…
Chemists are always working with an end goal in mind – to conduct research efficiently and to reach a desired result. They need tools to plan, execute and record reactions, with access to historical experimental results to find new synthetic…
We believe that ‘Cloud is the future of R&D’. At Bio-It World 2016 in Boston, industry experts agreed with us! Labs of all sizes are increasingly realizing a raft of benefits the cloud can deliver, especially with regards to reducing…
Specialized research and development (R&D) labs including contract organizations (CROs, CMOs etc.) in all sectors are under extreme pressure to develop new formulations quickly (as fast as possible) and effectively (as close to specification as possible). Responding to requests…
The scenario is sadly only too familiar: management has decided on a project to transform the business that is ultimately unsuccessful. It’s true, companies need to adapt to keep up with new technologies and ideas, but, according to Forbes…
Breakthrough discoveries in research and development (R&D) are rarely a single individual’s feat. Collaboration paves the way for accelerated advancements, but most often comes up against concerns around data sharing security and the protection of intellectual property (IP). It’s…
Research and Development informatics is not that different to any other area, it is full of tools and software that are all given TLA’s (three letter acronyms) or even FLA’s (four letter acronyms). This is in response to a history…
As labs find themselves under constant pressure to reduce costs and save time, there’s a lot of talk around how organizations can streamline various lab processes. One area that often slips under the radar is inventory management. And yet, organizations…
At IDBS, we often speak about the significant competitive pressures that R&D organizations must tackle in today’s business environment. In this challenging global market, the established players must find new ways to deliver more innovation, cut costs, fend off competitors…
Many companies today are operating a balanced approach to target and phenotypic assays, to try to optimize for disease relevance and throughput. Last week my blog post set the scene on the HCS landscape, but with new phenotypic assay formats…
Prior to the 1980s the vast majority of drug discovery was performed on tissues, cells or living organisms, where the tests looked for how compounds effected the phenotype. Since then the industry has adopted in-vitro target based approaches, leveraging advancements…
IDBS have just returned from a productive and enjoyable trip to the Smartlab Exchange conference in Munich. The event provided the usual eclectic mix of attendees, speakers and exhibitors all combined together resulting in a successful two days for all…
Today’s bioanalytical (BA) scientists find themselves under a deluge of data. It’s no bad thing as this valuable asset is driving research and development (R&D) forward, but it’s only useful if that information is stored and curated consistently. Paper-based processes…
We’ve been gathering feedback, reviewing market trends, and meeting with customers and partners alike to drive our development priorities for the upcoming year. With the release of 10.1 in January, we’ve brought even more key functionality to the web and…
This is a question that is asked more often than you might think – and if it isn’t asked it should be asked whenever a project kicks off. So what to do – first of all you’ve got to understand…
As oil prices tumble below $40 a barrel, the upstream finds itself with significant challenges in terms of managing exploration and production costs, as well as the loss of IP due to downsizing. The greener alternative of biofuels (which competes…
As an IT company I want to make excellent software So that lots of customers will decide to buy our products. This is what we call a user story; a product requirement written from the point of view of the…
2015 has been a busy year for IDBS, with the launch of E-WorkBook 10, our flagship research tool, and several customer and partner events across the world. These include Connect Philadelphia and our Community Forum series. For us, connecting with…
I’ve worked with a number of customers on their vision for a ‘lab of the future’, but what does that really mean for bioprocess manufacturing? Despite the advances in data management technology, the prevalence of paper-based systems in biomanufacturing is…
Recently we’ve discussed the changing nature of the research and development (R&D) business model and the advent of virtualized research. Across different industries as varied as pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and energy, organizations are motivated by a common drive to innovate…
Silicon Valley is a beacon of cutting-edge tech development. It conjures up images of agile, disruptive startups taking on the world and winning with their entrepreneurial gusto. It’s where category-defining tech innovators like Apple, Google, Kiip and Lyft’ have…
Organizations today are under a huge amount of pressure to improve efficiency and reduce costs. This means that business practices and how organizations want to capture and view their data are changing. In some cases, organizations are being asked to…
The TPP trade agreement involves 12 Pacific Rim nations accounting for 40% of the global economy including the US and Japan – with an accumulated population of roughly 800 million people. While business has broadly supported the deal and the…
The UK has tightened regulation for clinical trials in recent years. Reaction from the industry has been strong, with some suggesting legislation and high costs will kill off research and development (R&D) innovation and clinical research in the UK …
Pharmaceutical and chemistry-related businesses have bemoaned the negative impact of regulation on innovation and, more recently, a decision to cut $2.4bn from the European Commission’s flagship science research program, Horizon 2020. In contrast, the US aims to increase its National…
The pitfalls of automating the past While moving to electronic systems for scientific data management brings clear benefits, the risks for organizations is that implementation seeks to automate past, paper-based processes. The result is that data goes from being…
When it comes to research and development (R&D), money talks. More specifically, cost will always play a role in the type of technologies used in the lab – and the way those technologies are used. As the media has often…
Research and Development (R&D) organizations are becoming more and more focused on innovation. In doing so, they are increasingly opening up their research infrastructures, forming cross-disciplinary diverse teams. The days of two or three pharmaceutical chemistry scientists sitting…
As outsourcing becomes more prevalent across scientific domains, and in the bioanalysis sphere in particular, the importance of effective collaboration tools has come to the forefront. More and more companies are turning to external providers to help cut costs and…
For many scientific operations, day-to-day processes revolve around running assays, getting results and verifying that everything was completed according to the protocol. The challenge inherent in this has been the retrospective approach to quality control (QC). Today’s…
Process development groups face challenges on several fronts: quickly developing and transferring robust processes, constant optimization, cutting down on errors and saving time and money. But with research and development (R&D) spend in many parts of the world hitting a…
As competitive pressures grow, innovation has become imperative for research and development (R&D) organizations. In this pursuit, the sharing and efficient use of data is key to ensuring greater efficiency and speed to market. It keeps the cogs of ‘knowledge…
What struck you most about this year’s IDBS Connect? Was it the news about the new collaboration, search and inventory management tools announced on the first day? Was it hearing customers in both the life sciences and industrial sectors share…
At the heart of research lies innovation. And at the heart of innovation lies disruptive change. In previous posts we’ve looked at the disruptive power of trends within IP protection and prosecution; how lab automation is changing the way R&D is done and…
For some R&D decision makers, the ‘lab of the future’ conjures up images of endless cost and resources diverted to new and complex systems. To others the issue of mobility is at the forefront -like Pandora’s Box – best left…
In our latest guest blog, intellectual property (IP) lawyer, Andrés Jaramillo-Mejía talks us through the principles underpinning IP law and the need for reliable and robust documentation. Over two centuries of multilateral agreements and a host of supranational accords and…
Here at IDBS, we often talk about how we want to link data and people. But what do we really mean by that? It comes down to the fact that, data alone isn’t what drives innovation and delivers value to your…
Drivers such as the expiration of pharmaceutical patents, legal and regulatory reforms, and social and cost pressures have increased the value of intellectual property (IP). At the same time, new collaborative ways of working and the externalization of certain workflows…
A team of researchers recently published promising findings on ‘Eve’ – an artificially intelligent ‘robot scientist’ capable of screening potential drugs with almost no human input needed. Meanwhile, IBM’s artificially intelligent (AI) Watson system is seeing take-up among…
This month AstraZeneca announced a move towards externalizing its business model and working with partners in a bid to reduce research and development (R&D) spend. It’s a sign of the times, as the pharma and biotech industries find themselves under significant budget…
The ideal research and development (R&D) data management solution can be deployed across different teams, geographies and even be used with external stakeholders. But often the cost of deployment and training is daunting. You may not realize just how…
We recently shared news about our internal day devoted to employee innovation – idbsCreate. We’re lucky to be able to count on a global team of motivated and talented individuals from our software development divisions through to sales, human resources and…
This year we’ll be heading to Philadelphia, USA from May 19 – 20. IDBS Connect is our premier annual customer event that brings together the most innovative and creative minds in the global research and development (R&D) sector. With both formal…
Research and development (R&D) is changing. And with concepts such as the ‘lab of the future’ and the ‘paperless lab’ becoming more common, it’s important to understand what these terms really mean in practice. The lab of the future is…
At the end of 2014, the entire staff of IDBS were given the opportunity to spend a day innovating. And when I say the entire staff, we mean everyone: from the front desk team all the way up to the…
The New Year is already in full swing and as we move wholeheartedly into 2015, a look into the crystal ball shows exciting developments for research and development (R&D) across all domains. Will this be the year that scientists cure…
The holidays are upon us and, in among the tinsel and turkey, the end of the year is just around the corner. Before the clock strikes midnight to usher in 2015, let’s take a quick look back at just…
Drug development in the UK took center stage recently, as life sciences minister George Freeman set out his initiatives to make Britain “the best place in the world to get quicker access for patients to innovative medicines”. The Government also announced…
The move towards automation has been a key trend in the pharma and biotech sectors. We’ve seen the robotic handling and processing of samples move from high-throughput screening domains onto the discovery bench. Almost every lab now has a liquid…
Data. It’s everywhere and every day, more and more is being generated by scientists in research and development (R&D) cell culture labs. This data is a highly valuable asset so long as it can be accessed and linked together efficiently…
We are bombarded with tips and tricks for living a healthier lifestyle every single day. In recent years we have seen a shift in attitudes from fast food to clean living. Nowadays, it’s chic to eat healthily: kale is our…
The oil and gas industry is essential to us all. It heats our homes, provides fuel for transport and produces many related products which enhance our day-to-day lives. But what goes on behind the scenes to ensure we have a constant…
Biopharmaceutical professionals will be familiar with the scientists’ lament about the amount of time they waste trying to track down data or, worse still, having to re-run experiments because of missing data. The development of biological therapeutics is multifaceted by…
The advancement of technology used in everyday life occurs at a tremendous rate. Now take that speed of change and apply it to the laboratory. Keeping pace is a challenge for anyone creating informatics for scientists, researchers, engineers and analysts…
With the right time, the right data analytics and the right expertize, bringing genomics to the bedside can become a reality. The ambition and vision is there, but major challenges still lie ahead. What needs to happen in genomic medicine…
Ask any Italian how they like their pasta cooked and they’ll say ‘al dente’. Most trained chefs rely on taste and many throw it against the wall to see if it sticks as a measure of ‘cooked’. This method doesn’t…
Millennials will represent 40% of the total US working population by 2020 – that’s 86 million people. This group has never known a world without the internet and will be more tech-savvy than any working generation before it. Research and development…
Nowadays, trying to cover the entire research and development (R&D) life cycle in-house makes little economic sense. Externalization is viewed as an effective way of dealing with the twin challenges of managing the immense amount of data generated by modern…
Fostering and driving collaboration across continents and businesses is no small feat. Data is at the heart of scientific discovery and product development. It must be the foundation on which global B2B working partnerships are built and managed. Scientists need…
Lab technology has gradually become the grease to the wheels of R&D teams. Next generation tools will be essential in dealing with the R&D challenges of tomorrow. A number of leading thinkers at our recent Connect conference shared their thoughts…
Improving productivity and efficiency through business change and investments in software are high on the agenda. But without sufficient insight into the current, ‘as-is’ state of operations, delivering on promised change can be difficult. The successful deployment or implementation…
A recent story in Scientific American, Twitter to Release All Tweets to Scientists, explores the concept of harnessing historical tweets to advance research. This is an interesting notion which would certainly open the door to massive, longitudinal data sets. In theory…
Another year, another fantastic conference. Connect 2014 took place in London last week and was a truly international event, attracting more of our clients, industry speakers and R&D experts from around the world than ever before. It was also an opportunity to…
In this digital era, the power of data is unquestionable, but it has to be good quality data to be valuable. Industries ranging from consumer goods to food and drink to pharma and biotech are dependent on the quality and…
With the evolution of science and technology over the past 20 years, many lab operations are well developed. Data processing, review and reporting still remains a burden. The use of electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) could be the key to reinvigorating…
The recent news that Boris Johnson has launched MedCity is a welcome investment in the life sciences arena. It is encouraging to see the well-known research hubs of the UK, namely Oxford and Cambridge, are included in the ‘Golden triangle’ with London…
There are some people who know a lot about a little. There are those who know a little about a lot. Then there are the few who know pretty much about everything there is to know across a huge range…
Going green is the new black. Everyone is getting involved, from the world’s Governments pledging to cut carbon emissions to supermarkets doing away with plastic bags. Being more environmentally friendly is high on the agenda and it’s no different in…
Translational science, research and development (R&D) organizations and hospitals are starting to break down the barriers to open data collaboration. Most recently we’ve seen Johnson & Johnson agree on clinical trial data sharing with Yale School of Medicine. Other pharma…
But can someone tell me where the last 25 years have gone? As Albert Einstein famously postulated, time is relative. But as I cast my mind back to when I founded IDBS back in 1989, can a quarter of a century really…
Most of us are creatures of habit and the world of research and development (R&D) is no different. In my last blog I talked about how the historical practice of using paper laboratory notebooks to record experimental work had been productive but…
Most of us are creatures of habit, wedded to the familiar. The world of research and development (R&D) is no different. Historical practice has been to use paper laboratory notebooks to record experimental work. They’re good for writing down procedures…
This final blog in the series explores implementation strategies and considers the ultimate measure of a successful ELN implementation. Our two previous blogs (Where to start?, Pilots, customizations and testing) discussed requirements, organizational buy-in, the challenge of change…
In this second of our series on insider secrets for successful ELN implementations we are looking at pilots, customizations and testing based on group feedback from our LinkedIn user group. Our first blog summarized the importance of understanding requirements, generating buy-in and…
IDBS recently asked a LinkedIn user group to discuss their real life experiences of electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) implementations. People shared some real gems (thanks for taking the time everyone) and we were so impressed, we’ve decided to pass on their wise…
In recent blogs, I examined how people are at the core of everything we do: delivering positive business change from the bench to the boardroom. I also suggested that knowledge is about personal interpretation of information ‘in the moment’. This final instalment considers whether…
Why knowledge management is all about people that know stuff In this second blog exploring how people are at the core of everything IDBS does, I want to consider the concept of ‘knowledge management’. Do we all share the…
Delivering change – from the bench to the boardroom Change is a concept close to IDBS’ heart. Our software and services are all about enabling science through positive change – helping clever people to create great things by freeing…
Collaboration often lies at the heart of great innovations. So why should the thought of collaborating keep anyone up at night? Businesses which collaborate effectively usually flourish over those operating in splendid isolation. However, issues around data security and intellectual…
Horsemeat adulteration. Tainted milk. TB-infected beef. E. coli-infected bean sprouts. All shocking scandals which have left consumers reeling, confidence in food safety dipping further and the reputation of several household names, and even some nations, badly damaged. This most recent…
In a world of accelerating innovation, what is the future of enterprise data management? This fundamental question lies at the heart of the many challenges facing research and development (R&D) organizations today. Arriving at the right answer is critical to…
Andrew Jack’s recent article in the Financial Times touches on a hot debate across the pharmaceutical industry: should European and US drug companies be required to share clinical trials data with both researchers and competitors? Whilst many pharmaceutical and biotech firms…
A recent article in R&D Magazine saw researchers warning that a flood of unassembled genetic data is being produced much faster than current computers can turn it into useful information. The piece caught my eye as it highlights a critical issue: that…
The first ever comprehensive guide to experimental methodology for LC-MC bioanalysis (BA) is due to be published shortly. Edited by experts from Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, the Handbook of LC-MS Bioanalysis* is the result of an impressive collaboration from across…
Since the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Obama in September 2011, the clock has been ticking on the current ‘First-to-Invent’ system. This will be a major change for US scientists…
Or is it the other way around? For nearly four decades if you had a lab and structured data to manage, you turned to a laboratory information management system (LIMS) to keep you sane. There appeared to be no better…
The more I travel, the more I realize that it’s not just language that can be a barrier to innovation. Knowing that English is the de facto language of science and the default international business language helps facilitate global communication and collaboration…
In my first blog on the food and drink industry, I looked at how the use of enterprise data management and electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) can deliver business benefit to data intensive environments as found in food and drink companies. This second…
In this first of two blogs relating to the food and drink industry, I’m reflecting on how businesses can shorten their own learning curve by drawing on other people’s experiences. Smart industries learn from each other and ideas which seem…
I recently commented on an article in Fierce BioTech which questioned whether true drug breakthroughs are a thing of the past. The FDA recently announced a new ‘breakthrough’ drug status to urge research and development (R&D) teams to get more ‘transformative’ drugs…
Recently I wrote an article for Bio IT World on how our ‘always-on’ digital world has us swimming in oceans of data. IBM’s view that up to 90% of today’s data has been generated in the last two years is astounding. For many, translating…
A fascinating New York Times article on how US cancer centers are racing to map patients’ genes has made me think how personalized/precision medicine can be approached successfully. The article refers to an “an arms race within the war on cancer” as…
The UK, as one of the world’s leading innovation centers, continues to be “good at generating great ideas in our universities but less good at turning them into products and businesses of the future.” This insight by David Willetts in…
According to James Joyce, mistakes are the portals of discovery. Good science means making mistakes. I recently read a great article that encourages just that; researchers to be open and honest about their scientific mistakes. It recognizes that information borne from mistakes…
Make science social! That’s our mantra as we head to Bio-IT World this week. People believe that certain individuals are natural communicators: politicians, media moguls, celebrities, but R&D scientists? Science – the search for shared knowledge – is actually all about…
I’ve been talking recently about the idea that every R&D organization has an inner superpower waiting to be unleashed – but most of them are yet to discover it. In fact, many are squandering their most fearsome competitive advantage. What is…
Why not make some great connections in Marseille this May? I don’t know about you, but I spend a large amount of my time in meetings. Sometimes they are pre-meeting meetings, mainly meeting meetings, and from time to time after-meeting…
Exciting news from the US last week. The CommonWell Health Alliance, a not-for-profit trade association, has been formed with the promise of transforming the face of national healthcare. The headline act is to make health records easier to share and…
So much gets written about the woes of R&D. It’s time to stop. Think. Act. That’s our message at this year’s IQPC SmartLab’s conference in Munich (#SLABx) this week. Getting the data right inside today’s ‘SmartLab’ enables smarter enterprise R&D tomorrow and…
I urge you to read John Nosta’s recent article in Forbes. He explains how digital technology has failed to keep pace with clinical innovations. I like to compare it to how the telecoms industry was 20 years ago – data is…
Big Data is a Big Topic, fuelled by the impact of low cost genomic sequencing, adoption of electronic medical records and growth in personalized medicine approaches. From research to the clinic, translational medicine depends on properly integrated, managed and analyzed…
The recent news of an NHS driven DNA database for 100,000 subjects in the UK is a major statement of intent from the government. Following up on announcements regarding access to patient data via the Clinical Practice Research Database (CPRD…
A new collaborative data environment that will transform the world There’s nothing quite like the morning after a good party. It’s a rollercoaster of reflection, recovery and sometimes embarrassment. It’s also often a time of new resolutions. For many…
Are too many square pegs and round holes getting in the way? With the increasing globalization of bioanalytical (BA) operations, there can’t be many labs anywhere in the world that aren’t looking for ways to improve their productivity and…
Collaboration is everywhere these days–especially within the pharma industry. But getting it to work well relies on proper planning and co-operation that spans disciplines to allow better use of, and access to, data. A while ago we were planning…
Could it be the next breakthrough in scientific collaboration? As a wise man once noted, science is the search for shared knowledge. And in my view it’s the word – share – that is the most important part of the process…
The battle has long raged over the impact of nature (in the form of genetics) vs Nurture (in the form of environmental factors) on an individual’s susceptibility to disease. Clearly both play a huge part in deciding the expressed phenotype…
IDBS Guildford takes to two wheels to triumph in cycling challenge At IDBS we thrive on a little competition. And a fair number of us like cycling. So when we heard about the Surrey Cycle Challenge, a fun initiative…
Amongst the companies providing fodder for booth trophy hunters, national dancers, alphorns and buckets of beer, what was one of the big buzzes at BIO 2012? Bioprocessing. Last year this area was just a zone, but it has fermented into…
Service Excellence Small Team of the Year Awards – the results are in This is my last blog for the IDBS Support Service Desk Institute Small Team of the Year Service Excellence Awards – now there’s a mouthful for…
The IDBS Racy Ladies survive the Race for Life We would like to say a HUGE, ENORMOUS and MASSIVE thank you to everyone who made a donation. Your generosity really means a lot to us and to Cancer Research…
The ladies of IDBS prepare for The Race for Life Working at IDBS, we often have an insight into ongoing research that covers a vast range of serious illnesses. But few have quite the same impact as Cancer. It…
…and the odd can of worms! There can be little doubt that the future for the pharma and R&D industries lies in open collaboration and innovation. And countless establishments are revising their IT strategies to take this into account…
IDBS Support team shortlisted for major service award While I was thinking of ways to recognize all the improvements and achievements that the IDBS Support team have made over the past few years, one of my team, Jenny Perry…
It’s started as an eventful week! Back problems left me unable to move for two days and I picked up a chill the day before the Olympic Park Run, so I wasn’t feeling on top of the world. (Come on…
XLfit provides crucial analysis to keep the experiment of a lifetime on track for NASA Now you might say that I’m over the moon with the sheer scientific value that XLfit offers. And you’d be right. It integrates perfectly with the…
To be honest, I thought that marathons would be the highlight of my running career. After all, there aren’t that many bigger challenges. But then someone told me about the National Lottery Olympic Park Run – with only a few…
How we use Web 2.0 methodology so you’ll never say this about IDBS In his last blog post, Chris Molloy highlighted reasons why accurate content is important. So when it comes to product documentation, getting accurate content is all there…
I was interested to read the Review Public ‘Mea Culpas’ by Jon Cohen in the December 1stIssue of Technology Review. It covers the amount of scientific literature that gets withdrawn for reasons including inaccuracy, honest mistakes or … full blown…
R&D INFORMATICS: READINESS CHECKLIST Based on our analysis of the survey findings and the input of dozens of leading R&D organizations that we work with at IDBS, we’d like to propose the following practical strategies to help you tackle R&D…
I totally agree with Jonathan that iPad development forces you to think differently about the user experience. But I think the impact of the iPad is much greater than simply using your finger as the input device on a small screen. With…
This is part II of a series of blogs analyzing the results of our recent R&D Collaboration trends survey. See R&D Informatics – are you ready for 2012? for the first post. Reality of the R&D Informatics landscape It is often easy to…
In July 2011 we worked with Scientific Computing, R&D, and Drug Discovery & Developmentmagazines to survey almost 700 R&D professionals. The survey aimed to uncover the top challenges R&D centric organizations face in the quest for R&D collaboration, IP…
“We’ll always need to record and search through our research data but how we do this will never be the same.” This is probably how the Apple iPad advert for an “iResearch” app would run. How true it will become…
NGS (next gen sequencing) can help in the delivery of personalised medicine and the understanding of disease – no doubt in my mind. But like all the things that have gone before – HTS (high throughput screening), Combinatorial Chemistry, molecular…
President Obama signed the America Invents Act into Law last Friday. So it’s all change at theUSPTO and with a handy 15% increase in fees too. But what does it mean to researchers, R&D organizations and their potential blockbuster data? The days…
Last Friday’s report in Reuters that less than 1% of US cancer patients get into clinical trials for new treatments tells a much wider story: that clinical trial and the real world clinical environment are often very different things. The conclusion of…
Sharing, analysing and interrogating data to make it meaningful is crucial. Yet much of the world’s most powerful software can be a nightmare to integrate and often requires in-depth, expensive training to enable you to use all those vital features…
Why the world needs to get real about how we treat data for INDs It goes without saying that preclinical collaboration is complex business. So why then is so much of the historical data, collected over so many years of…
The externalisation train has left the station. Whether we know it or not we are all on it. Academics, biotechs and SMEs have laid the tracks for major companies to travel through multiple international collaborations; accessing talent and making sure…
Funding cuts for academia and continuing issues for the pharmaceutical industry are causing considerable stress in life sciences and healthcare research. However, new opportunities are developing to enable industry to access high quality, longitudinal patient and genetic data for…
It’s encouraging to see personalised medicine being featured front and centre in The Times today in the article by Mark Henderson. Making diagnosis and treatment decisions based on an individual’s genetic makeup seemed a long way off just a few years ago…
With the pace of technological change it is more relevant than ever to question not only how children are taught but also what they are taught. From simple adjustments like replacingcursive handwriting with typing, to deep questions over how learning itself is…
It all started with a crazy idea, and the fact that another ‘IDBS-er’ had ridden from London to Paris in 3 days to raise loads of money for charity. Little did I know what I had put my hand up…
It appears that the post mortem on Google Health is already being performed – six months before the patient is dead! But pointing a finger at the US Healthcare system misses one of the key issues, surprising for such a marketing-savvy company…
Times have changed from the heady days when sequencing a genome was a global endeavour that cost $3 billion. The latest NGS systems can do it for $10,000 in a few weeks – well almost. The challenges in the move…
The switch from paper-based notebooks to Electronic Lab Notebooks has proved as profound as the move from 78rpm records to iTunes. To stay competitive in this increasingly data driven world, investing in ELNs is becoming more and more crucial. Nowhere…
