Dear AAPS members–
Yesterday morning I caught up with a friend who is the Head of Quality in a large pharma company, and we reflected on how differently business gets done at the moment. A large portion of the pharmaceutical sciences workforce is contributing to our field not from their usual places at the bench or on the manufacturing floor, but through a remote digital connection.
But it's still the same data, right? And it's the data that drives our conclusions and decisions, right? Not so fast! It's more complicated than that because humans are involved. While my friend is reporting that productivity and actual quality of work are up in his shop, he also admitted that decision-making conversations held by teams and committees are different.
I was excited to tell him that AAPS is participating in a research project that explores whether specific elements of how a drug development project is presented to decision-makers influences their actions regarding its future. According to Antonio Garzon-Vico, Ph.D., "When analyzing the reasons for the outcome of a project, the spotlight falls primarily on the scientific and pharmacological characteristics of the product itself. In contrast, the human factors that contribute to managerial decision-making at crucial steps of the development process are often overlooked."
To find out how presentation affects decision-making, the research team needs help from our AAPS members! To test their hypotheses, the team invites AAPS members in the biotechnology and pharmacology sectors to take part in an online experiment. Respondents will be presented with information about several hypothetical drug development projects and then asked to make decisions regarding the projects' viability. This will not take much of your time, 10-15 minutes at most. Participation in the research is completely voluntary and anonymous-no information that can be used to identify the participants will be requested or recorded at any point during the experiment. I can't wait to hear about the results, so I am pleased to share that Antonio and the other members of the team-Jan Rosier, Ph.D., and Dimitar Krastev-have promised that the results of the research will be shared with AAPS members in the spring.
There is also a lot of discussion right now about how we do business in the future, especially among those who deal with manufacturing innovations and how those innovations could drive different tactics and strategies for securing our supply chain. The cover story of this month's AAPS Newsmagazine delves into that with a lens on continuous manufacturing. Aditya Vanarese and colleagues present the results of an industry survey that was conducted by the Drug Product Continuous Manufacturing Working Group (CMWG), which was established through the International Consortium for Innovation and Quality in Pharmaceutical Development (IQ Consortium). If this has made you curious, please don't miss next week's Land O' Lakes Pharmaceutical Analysis conference, where manufacturing and supply chain issues will also take center stage in a dedicated plenary session, The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Supply of Quality Medicines.
We understand that much of the value that our members find in our conferences and workshops is fueled by interactions with other participants. Although we are a scientific society that prizes quality research, we like to chat too! This is what AAPS staff are currently spending most of our time and effort on as we prepare for upcoming events: ensuring that you can have a good conversation through our virtual spaces. With that in mind, look for more information soon about our Connect 360 matchmaking tool, which you will be able to use at PharmSci 360 this year. We recently held a training session for our volunteer leaders in the AAPS Communities, the Board of Directors, and our many committees so they can be the first to greet you after you register for PharmSci 360 and then enter Connect 360. The tool will be particularly important for you if you like posters and talking to authors-you'll be able to contact authors, set up meetings, and video chat about their work!
Speaking of posters: have you seen the beautiful new templates for this year's meeting? A big shout-out to @Teresa Homrich who has done her usual stellar job in working with the talented designers at our marketing company MGI (@Bill Schaffner) to bring these to our authors. I am looking forward to seeing how authors experiment with these new options. There is still time until next Wednesday, August 12, to get your late-breaking abstract in if you'd like to try your hand at a "billboard-style" poster.
Here's to staying curious for answers in our science!
Tina
Share your thoughts with Tina via the AAPS Community!