Pharmacometrics has a critical role in supporting data-driven decisions for efficient drug development. However, the organizational structure and parent department of a PMx group may have a significant impact on the ability of the group or its individual members to be fully successful! At this ACoP2024 session, 4 organizational structures at Pharma companies were discussed by a panel of experts and scored on a “stoplight” scale for their impact on 3 dimensions, creating a heatmap that sparked much debate (just as we had hoped!). Note that the “best” structure ended up as Pharmacometrics as an independent department or parent department to clinical pharmacology and other groups … perhaps there was a bit of bias there!
I had a great time planning and moderating this session with the energetic and fabulous Nieves Velez de Mendizabal. Our fantastic panelists: Julia Korell, Gemma Dickinson, Ana Ruiz, and Joga Gobburu, did a great job drawing out the important aspects of organizational structure and sharing their sometimes conflicting opinions and provocative statements, which made the debate spirited! Our judges [Lourdes Cucurull-Sanchez, Justin Wilkins, and Bill Denney] , currently consultants but all of whom previously had industry positions, had the hard job of summarizing the debates into a simple vote. And thank you to our lovely “assistant”, Amparo de la Peña for updating the heatmap in real time!
This is only the beginning of the debate- more to come!
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Photo by Tavits Photography
Photo by Tavits Photography