| Enormous Challenges
Dr. Ludo Lauwers, vice president
and Beerse site manager for R&D, stated
that the center is part of an overall program
involving investments totaling more than
141 million euros, which are being made
in the infrastructure of the site:
- 45 million euros for this building;
- 68 million euros for the new building
of the Discovery Research department;
- 12 million euros in new technologies;
- 16 million euros for the new clinical
samples unit.
“Finding innovative medicines for
the benefit of public health continues to
be our prime aim,” says Dr. Lauwers.
“However, the challenges facing this
sector are enormous; the number of new drugs
decreases each year, R&D costs have
risen to 850 million euros per new drug,
and only 3 out of 10 new drugs are profitable
- despite their undeniable value for society
and public health.” Our research organization,
which now has a worldwide-integrated new
structure and way of working, is known as
“Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical
Research and Development”. Together
with the above-noted investments, the new
approach adopted by our research and development
must create synergies that will enable us
to meet the challenges.
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|
A Center of Excellence
The new building will house the Drug
Safety Evaluation department. The latter
is a worldwide Center of Excellence
within the Johnson & Johnson group
for research into the safety of newly
discovered active ingredients.
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A total of 45 million euros is being invested
in the center, which will have a total floor
area of 12,000 m2 and provide offices and
laboratories for 145 staff members. The
building will become operational in 2004.
The department studies the influence or
possible side effects of a substance on
the body after high-dose administration.
The aim is to evaluate the safety of the
drug before it is used in man. The department
also prepares the drug-safety-profile section
of the official registration dossiers required
by the authorities.
Dr. Werner Coussement, head of the department,
declared: “This new building will
house the latest technology and equipment.
It is just as important, however, that it
provide an environment that is attractive
to scientific collaborators, whether from
Belgium or abroad. For the rest, the building
has been designed to facilitate internal
interaction between the various disciplines.”
The new building meets the highest standards
in terms of sustainability; thus it makes
use of heat recovery, high-efficiency insulating
glass, and automatic control of airflow,
and the lighting, heating, and cooling technologies
are state of the art. Lastly, water consumption
is monitored and controlled.
New too is the fact that the department
studies the safety of active ingredients
before the efficacy trials are complete.
In this way, costly research into new substances
can be discontinued promptly if it turns
out that the safety profile is unsatisfactory.
Only 1 in 20 active ingredients survives
this selection process and moves a step
further along the development road.
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