An R&D-based study, conducted by international consultants Accenture, gains importance in the backdrop of a bleak scenario that most of the MNCs are being forced to cut the R&D-related expenses as their R&D costs climbing to heights.

A study conducted by international consultants Accenture confirms that companies necessarily need to change their R&D model, if they want to achieve maximum efficiency in their research process encountering minimum bottlenecks, saving costs.

"Today, pharmaceutical manufacturers handle the entire gamut of drug discovery and development- from target and molecule validation to in vitro and in vivo testing and clinical trials-in-house. But it is a challenge for any company to manage each of these functions efficiently and effectively," said Arjun Bedi, partner, Health & Life Sciences Practice, Accenture.

To mitigate the problem, Accenture has proposed four types of future models for companies involved in R&D. The approach is based on doing the work you are best at and partnering with experts for the rest.

The first model is Virtual R&D organisation, wherein the company itself does research on processes on the areas it is capable of and leaves the rest for outsourcing or joins with partners. "If a company's expertise lies in drug discovery, it should focus on that and partner with a well-known utility on animal studies and/or clinical trials. This is particularly true in areas such as genomics and bioinformatics, where science and technology are so advanced that in-depth expertise is required. These moves save precious resources such as money and time," said Bedi.

The second model is 'The Innovators,' where it focuses its research on a specific disease. As the focus of its research is limited, the company would aspire to do its research independently rather than going for partnering. For example, a company would aspire to become a specialist in diabetes and will set up infrastructure right from the target identification to the final molecule in his labs.

The third model is based on 'global scale plays,' where the innovator company invests in R&D on multiple therapy areas. The company would benefit immensely even if a few out of the many bets placed by the company turns positive, said Bedi.

The fourth is the Industry Utilities model. Here the company chooses to be a utility service provider to the original innovator providing services like contract research or bio-informatics service provider.

For Indian companies, the future lies in being a Virtual R&D company, disease specific R&D company and Utility, he said. "Indian companies need to choose the right model, develop the right capabilities, invest in the right talent and integrate themselves with right informatics and information management tools in drug discovery and target validation," he added.