Continuous Improvement
We have incorporated continuous improvement into our operating culture. This will help us increase the cost-effectiveness of what we do and improve our productivity in developing more and better drug candidates for our pipeline.
We have had a strong track record of productivity with nine drug approvals since 2002, including approvals for seven new molecular entities. And while this benchmarks well in the industry, we will continue to strive for higher and more sustainable productivity levels. For R&D, that translates into three specific efforts:
- Evaluating the cost-benefit trade-offs of every one of our significant scientific decisions.
- Applying Lean Sigma thinking to simplify processes and eliminate low value work.
- Focusing on core work that drives innovation.