In Vivo to in Vitro to in Silico: Coping with Tidal Waves of Data at Biogen

Biogen is a successful biotech company facing a critical juncture. CEO John Mullen ponders how technological changes introduced into the research function will shape larger corporate decisions. This world in which biotechnology companies operated had changed dramatically over the past few years. Parts of biology were rapidly evolving from being an individualistic, wet lab, bench-science driven field toward one where scientists manipulated huge amounts of data and divided up research steps into a factorylike production process. At the same time, the cost of developing a drug and bringing it to market had ballooned, from an estimated $231 million in 1991 to $802 million in 2000. Biogen was conservative in adopting new genomics tools. This case describes how the company decided to bring in house the latest genomics in silico tools and applied them to the discovery and research phase for drug development. The company also then restructured its research strategy. As the new tools and early-phase research began to bear fruit, Mullen realized that they implied significant changes down the road for other parts of Biogen.