Knowledge Management in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Enhancing Research, Development & Manufacturing Performance

Abstract

The Pharmaceutical Industry is intensely information and knowledge rich across all of the significant disciplines it embraces so is an ideal sector to demonstrate the value of Knowledge Management (KM). The authors have extensive experience with the UK’s biggest pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and its predecessor SmithKline Beecham. As part of their research they interviewed twenty-seven leading pharmaceutical KM practitioners and used their experiences to detail various practical applications of KM. This gives the book real insight into the value of KM across the industry.

The pharmaceutical value chain has gone through radical change in recent years and the book reviews in detail how KM can be applied to catalyse further change and improvements in order to speed up the process of bringing effective new products to market. Each of the pharmaceutical development cycles are reviewed, including Research and Development, Manufacturing, Functional and Commercial areas. These later areas are also relevant to other industries.