Can Knowledge Management Systems Help Pfizer?

Introduction

In 1849, Charles Pfizer and Charles Erharts' dreams took shape. With $2500 dollars they had borrowed from Charles Pfizer's father they purchased their first modest red-brick building in Brooklyn, New York, with hopes and aspirations of producing chemicals not in existence so far in the US (Pfizer, 2002-07). They succeeded, and over time have expanded to what is now known as the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical firm, Pfizer.

Pfizer is most commonly known today for its prescription drugs such as Celebrex, Lipitor and Viagra and over-the-counter remedies like Listerine and Visine and its animal health products (Laudon, 2004 pg453). It's mission being to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives, with their dedication towards better health and greater access to healthcare for people and animals (Pfizer, 2002-07).

Strategy to succeed in the pharmaceutical industry

Drug research and discovery is an extremely time-consuming and onerous process (Laudon, 2004 pg453), with only one in ten thousand new chemical entities making it through the stringent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, and only half of these approved drugs actually making it to market (Laudon, 2004 pg453).

With the typical seven-year testing cycle an estimated cost of around six hundred million dollars per drug, this process that is to be carried out with as minimal delay and error as possible (Laudon, 2004 pg453). To assist with this process, Pfizer has taken steps to expand their knowledge, using many different sources to expedite the drug development process and get new drugs to market.

To gain new and make better use of existing knowledge Pfizer has taken advantage of IT. They rely heavily on knowledge management systems to drive research and development of hot new drugs, whilst also taking a global approach to information management (Laudon, 2004 pg453). Pfizer was also a pioneer in using advanced information technology for combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening (Laudon, 2004 pg453).

Combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening was implemented to accelerate the design, screening and the testing of compounds (Laudon, 2004 pg454). Before these systems were implemented compounds were individually evaluated by pharmaceutical companies which was very slow, unfortunately Pfizer were not the only ones to embrace this opportunity to gain the advantages portrayed by these systems and virtually all major companies in the industry embraced them also (Laudon, 2004 pg453). Although most major pharmaceutical companies embraced these systems and processes there has been much scepticism in regards to their effectiveness (Laudon, 2004 pg454).

In such a high risk industry, Pfizer is constantly