Raising costs ever-increasing regulatory hurdles and mounting difficulties in finding the
next blockbuster drug are just a few of the challenges Big Pharma currently has to face for its
research and development process the heart of its risky business. Big Data claims to be full
of insights that Big Pharma need to find a way of harvesting which could lead to new
compounds. Academics Big Data start-ups and pharmaceutical companies have focused their
research efforts on analytic tools and data technologies to store collect analyse and
extract these insights from massive data sets. However the key question is whether the Big
Data hype really does have the claimed accelerating effect on the complex research and
development process or if it actually creates another hurdle for Big Pharma innovation. Malena
Johannes' timely book sheds light on this question by examining the top 5 pharmaceutical
companies and provides an overview on the status quo of Big Data applications within the
pharmaceutical industry.
