The recent TeGenero drug trials, which left four UK men seriously ill, have highlighted the critical role that research and development plays in the pharmaceutical industry.

It can take 10 to 15 years to bring a new medical drug to market and, as well as safety regulations, pharmaceutical firms are under constant pressure to maximise profits and the shelf life of each product before its 20-year patent expires.

Pharmaceutical giant Roche is one such firm using information technology and business intelligence systems to try to increase its market share.

The company – which develops cancer treatment and bird flu drugs – is working with Oracle to extrapolate more trial data out of clinical databases.

‘There is a huge amount of data that is collected over many, many years,’ says Jennifer Allerton, chief information officer at Roche. ‘We are now using analytics tools to look even more closely at the effects trials have on patients.’

According to Allerton, if Roche manages to bring a drug to market just one month ahead of schedule using data analysis tools, it could equate to extra revenues of about $100m (£53m).

‘In the pharmaceutical industry it is a challenge to manage the peaks and troughs, so it is highly important that we have new drugs coming to market,’ she said.

Using the Oracle clinical database, SAP software and business intelligence tools from SAS, the pharmaceutical firm can drill down into the data and discover trends or anomalies in patient results, meaning they can be investigated faster.

The new systems are also helping Roche complete its clinical trials much faster. This in turn enables regulatory groups to examine the results and decide earlier whether a drug should be made available for commercial distribution.

As well as its trials of clinical IT systems, Roche is also in the process of completing a major technology consolidation project across 62 countries that will bring greater efficiencies and cost savings.

The pharmaceutical firm is standardising networks and desktops across the world, introducing HP computers and Windows operating platforms.

‘We didn’t want to have 62 fragmented systems. Four years ago we had lots of individual site IT groups in each country, but we wanted to turn it into a global outfit,’ said Allerton.

Further cost savings have been made by consolidating 14 data centres into four in the US, Brazil, Australia and Switzerland, she says.

Roche is now in the process of consolidating and streamlining its SAP systems, which were historically developed on a country basis. Eleven SAP systems in western Europe will be centralised into one, giving the company a single view of all data.

The completed SAP system, which will link into Oracle databases, will launch next year. Product planning, supply chain, finance and HR functions will use the technology.

‘It is a major project harmonising all the SAP systems, but it will help us work more securely and flexibly,’ said Allerton.

Despite many companies outsourcing application development to IT services firms to make financial savings, Roche has decided to keep the majority within the organisation.

Part of this decision is down to the need to keep intellectual property and drug developments secret. Experienced in-house IT staff also have a greater understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and systems that are needed, says Allerton.

Roche has instead established IT centres of excellence in Madrid and Warsaw to support its central team in Switzerland. In Madrid, engineers work on infrastructure development, while in Warsaw IT staff concentrate on application development.

Some 70 per cent of IT employees are permanently contracted to Roche, 10 per cent are temporary, and the remaining 20 per cent are a mixture of consultants and IT outsourcing firms, says Allerton.

‘Traditionally Roche has outsourced very little. The challenge is that you need to have your core backbone of skills in-house but with some of the newer skills we need to outsource and then reduce as necessary,’ she said.

With half a million people contributing to Roche’s research and development programme – including universities and other biotechnology firms – security is also crucial.

‘Data protection and guarding all our assets is absolutely key. We cannot let confidential data get out from a patient privacy point of view,’ said Allerton.

The firm is using role-based access to ensure only authorised people can view sensitive information, while data is being encrypted when it is shared with collaboration partners.

‘We have five research sites around the world and they are connected together. Making that knowledge accessible to partners is hugely important, but so is the security,’ she said.

Four years into her job at Roche, Allerton’s transformation project is not finished. With the Oracle and SAP consolidation projects nearing completion, she is now working on the IT systems for two new drug processing plants opening soon in Germany and Switzerland.

Roche’s IT transformation programme at a glance

*Roche is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, having announced profits of 27.3bn (£12bn) Swiss francs from drugs sales last year.

*Over the past four years Roche has been centralising IT operations for 70,000 staff in 150 countries.

*Oracle clinical trial databases hold information on some 40,000 patients, which is being exploited to bring products to market faster.

*Fourteen data centres are being consolidated to four to bring greater operational efficiencies. SAP enterprise systems are also being integrated.

*If better data analysis helps bring a drug to market one month ahead of schedule, Roche could make extra revenues of about $100m (£53m).