Wyeth has been talking about the redesign of its approach and philosophy to clinical trials for years. As many readers know, the company restructured its drug discovery effort, and then tackled clinical—with some help from Accenture, which took over key tasks like data management in an open-books partnership. In that arrangement, both sides are sharing costs and responsibilities as well as risks and rewards. That’s the history. At the Clinical Trials Congress this year, Wyeth discussed where it wants to go. For many senior managers in the audience, Wyeth’s discussion could have been simulataneously exciting and discouraging. Exciting because Wyeth seems to believe a transformation of clinical systems is an immediate, feasible thing. And discouraging because all of the technology adoption and process change that have already taken place may be just the beginning of a very long journey. Ira Spector, Wyeth’s VP of clinical development and vice chief of operations,…more...