Holistic Open-Learning Network (HOLNet) for BioTech R&D

As the global biotech industry gathered in Boston this week for the annual BIO International Convention, the consulting firm Ernst & Young [E&Y] was busy rolling out its annual business overview of the sector.

And this year, E&Y also proposed a “disruptive” new model for shaking up research and development within the life sciences as a way to address the challenges that are forcing leaders to think differently about the future.

“In this capital-constrained environment, the inefficiency and duplication of the drug R&D paradigm is an indulgence we can no longer afford,” Glen Giovannetti, E&Y’s global life sciences leader, said in a statement. “More than ever, the industry needs to remove duplication, encourage pre-competitive collaboration, pool data and allow researchers to learn in real time.”

The report suggested that the optimal means to improving R&D is to develop a “new approach that is iterative, fast, adaptive, cost-efficient and open.” The model that E&Y proposes would be a “holistic open-learning network (HOLNet).”