PA Consulting Group, the leading international management, systems and technology consultancy, has gained a commendation in the fourth annual Management Consultancies Association (MCA) Best Management Practice Awards, for its highly successful BASF Pharma work.
The commendation, in the Best Strategy and Business Transformation category, was for BASF Pharma’s Accelerating Clinical Development (ACD) programme. This was launched at the end of 1996, in partnership with PA Consulting Group with the twin aims of cutting clinical drug development times by 40 per cent and achieving effective globalisation of processes. PA was chosen for the assignment because of its industry expertise, coupled with its pragmatic approach to developing solutions.
The MCA judging panel commented:
“This well presented, jargon-free entry demonstrated a difficult project in a very competitive and aggressive market. The reduction of development time by up to 40 per cent is very impressive and deserved a high score.”
Professor Erich Schlick, Head of R&D at Knoll AG (BASF Pharma), commented:
“Before ACD, we developed drugs below the industry average. Now our top development project timelines are comparable to those of the Pfizers of the world.”
Keith Redpath, Head of PA’s Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare business, commented:
“Cost effectiveness for the client came from a relatively small PA team (12 people), all ex-industry so no learning curve, who hit the ground running and worked closely with over 50 dedicated client personnel for a year. This ratio, and hence the working relationship, was optimal - our people guided theirs, so it stuck.”
The PA/client team began with a revealing cross-site analysis, going on to develop a top-level strategy which included the key goal of a six year drug development timeframe.
View BASF case study PDF (60K).
