Research and development is a serious investment in time and money โ on average, large multinational drug companies spend 17%of their revenues of R&D, while it takes ten years on average to bring a new drug to market. The latest release of DrugBank contains over 13,000 approved drug entries that are available in the global market. According to a report from the World Health Organization there are more than 10,000 types and 1.5 million pieces of medical devices or equipment available today.
Myles Whiting, design team leader at medical device company Owen Mumford, echoes the importance of this collaborative effort in research and development, โProduct designers must work with marketing teams to establish unmet market and customer needs, then marketing teams interpret and deliver market context and customer needs to the engineers, who then have the ability to process this into measurable design input. The research and information is gathered, this is then accumulated into a brief which the designer uses to address the market or customer need.โ
The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Bundesinstitut fรผr Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte) (BfArM) is the body that regulates drugs and medical devices in Germany. Technological advancements are proving key in their advancement into the research of medical devices. The emergence of โbig dataโ has โincreased quantities of data on offer to the BfArM, giving them the opportunity to quickly gain more insights on medical device risks in the future.โ The number of medical device incident reports received by the BfArMper year has approximately tripled in the past ten years. In 2017, almost 14,000 reports were received, and this number continues to grow thanks to the amount of the amount of โbig dataโ information gathered.
Technological advancements have reduced the cost of research and development โ helping to accelerate investment in life sciences โ while also creating new opportunities for product innovations as the Fourth Industrial revolution blurs the boundaries between the biological, physical and digital worlds. According to a report by KPMG, the cost of drug R&D will drop by 2030, leading to numerous benefits for both the industry and consumer in terms of cost savings.
