Optimization of preclinical profiling operations in drug discovery

In early-stage drug discovery, thousands of compounds must be tested using in vitro assays to determine their exposure and safety characteristics. This data is used to guide the selection of potential drug candidates and to help chemists in optimize the properties of those compounds. At Novartis, an internal service organization called Preclinical Compound Profiling (PCP) provides these services to the company as a whole. The purpose of this internship was to help PCP make significant improvements in cycle time and cost effectiveness without reducing the quality of information provided to their customers. The project utilized a series of deterministic and stochastic models to predict the impact of multiple operational changes on cost and cycle time. The data from each model was synthesized to create a unified view allowing combinations of changes to be analyzed together. This data was evaluated in the context of the customer needs and organizational strategy to present recommendations. Changes were implemented that will reduce materials spending by $500,000 per year while simultaneously increasing capacity, reducing cycle time, and improving customer value. Additional recommendations were developed that will enable further improvements.

Department dc:contributor.department

Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Heiney, John P. (John Patrick)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Roy E. Welsch and Gregory J. McRae.

• Sloan School of Management.
• Chemical Engineering.
• Leaders for Manufacturing Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39595

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39595