Every year, the editors of R&D Magazine, an Advantage Business Media publication, chooses one individual who demonstrates excellence and creativity in the design, development and introduction into the marketplace of one or more technologically significant products over the past five years.
We extend an invitation to our readers to nominate that individual. Submissions are not limited to the research and development community, but the selection of the winning nomination is the sole responsibility of the editorial staff of R&D Magazine and an appointed panel of judges.
Requirements for an Innovator of the Year:
1 – Must have shown leadership in the development of a product or products to his/her organization within the past five years that must be readily identified as innovative—not evolutionary, trivial, or obvious.
2 – The product development made by the nominee must have made a significant contribution to his/her organization with regard to one or more (but not limited to) of the following items:
• Increased sales
• Increased profitability
• Increased market share
• Increased overall growth for the organization
• Dramatic improvements in product performance or applications
• Dramatic improvements in safety or security
• Dramatic improvements in the sustainability, cost effectiveness, efficiency, or producibility of the product
3 – The product development can consist of an actual hardware-based product, software, process technology, or service.
4 – The product development accomplishments can consist of one or more individual products.
5 – Product development accomplishments can consist of products with applications in any country.
6 – There is no fee for any nominations and submitters may nominate more than one candidate.
7 – Only one nominee will be selected the Innovator of the Year—team awards will not be made.
8 – Selection of winning candidates is made by the editorial staff of R&D Magazine and their decisions are final.
9 – Submitters may nominate more than one candidate. Candidates can self-nominate for the award.
10 – Nominees must be aware that they are being nominated for this award.
11 – The selected nominee must be available for phone interviews to R&D editors for this award (between June 16 – July 15, at a mutually convenient time)
12 – The selected Innovator of the Year will be the subject of the cover story for the August 2008 issue of R&D Magazine.
13 – The selected Innovator of the Year is invited to attend an awards ceremony at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Attendance at this ceremony is not mandatory and travel expenses must be borne by the Innovator of the Year—complementary tickets for the Award’s Banquet Cocktail Reception and Awards Banquet will be provided by R&D Magazine, along with an appropriate Award obelisk, and reprints of the August 2008 cover story.
14 – Nominations will be accepted through 11:59 pm June 16, 2008—no extensions will be made.
15 – The winning Innovator of the Year will be informed no later than June 17, 2008. Non-winning nominations will not be informed, information on the winning candidate can be obtained after June 16, 2008 at 973-920-7063.
To submit for this year’s award, please provide the following information:
1 – Submitter, Title, Organization, Address, and Contact Information
2 – Innovator of the Year nominee, Title, Organization, Address, and Contact Information
3 – Reason why nominee should be selected as R&D’s Innovator of the Year (250 words max)
4 – Nominee bio
5 – Products/Software/Processes/Services developed by the Nominee
6 – Applications and/or purpose of the nominee’s product development (250 words max)
7 – Resulting effect of the nominee’s product development efforts on his/her organization and/or the marketplace.
8 – Professional references with contact information for the nominee (optional)
Does anyone really understand big pharma? I’m sure many do, but to me, an outsider mostly interested in the technologies used for the basic R&D of the drugs in question, I’m struck by how the industry seems to thrive on insatiable momentum.
For the last year it seems, stock analysts have been waving caution signs in front of investors about the inability of pharmaceuticals to develop new drugs to replace those that pass along to the generics market. As generics take over the marketplace, the big dogs like Sanofi-Aventis, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer (it’s amazing how many of them spring up isn’t it?) must get new drugs approved as soon as possible. Why? Well, development costs are spectacular and the investments must pay.
These days, the U.S. Patent Office and the Federal Drug Administration are sometimes considered the toughs that put the choke hold what used to be a lucrative product avenue: apply for a patent, file continuations on the patent, conduct clinical trials, wait for FDA approval. But the approvals aren’t coming along like they used to, thanks to heightened concerns over drug safety. And the U.S. Patent Office is tired of spending time dealing with continuation filing. They’ve got a hard enough time dealing with a record number of patent filings of all kinds.
So then, it’s a grim spectacle and it gets worse when one takes into account the sheer portability of a drug product, which seems tailor-made for exploitation via an online black market. More than 3,000 online sellers of major pharma products have been identified. So lucrative are these fake pharmas that the practice has been dubbed “brandjacking”.
Without a constant flow of product pouring through the drug pipeline, big pharma’s thirst is never quenched. So where do they go? The answer is biotechnology, and through a number of promising new therapeutic innovations—from imaging systems to targeted nanoparticle drug delivery tools—big pharma has moved away from what was once a realm of high-profile IPOs to a wave of high-profile M&As and licensing agreements.
It’s an impressive adaptation that has kept the ball rolling for these companies even in the face of economic gloom.
And it’s been good for science in general. Biotech firms that might never have attracted necessary investment in a time of evaporated capital now have a cash cow ready and willing to get it hands on any product, as long as its one they can market and sell quickly.
