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dc.contributor.authorLouage, Benoit
dc.contributor.authorBlancquaert, Tarquin
dc.contributor.authorHougen, Trevor
dc.date.accessioned2021-04-27T19:02:10Z
dc.date.available2021-04-27T19:02:10Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12127/6932
dc.description.abstractAs part of our Master in Financial Management program at Vlerick Business School (Belgium) we - Dr. Benoit Louage, Trevor Hougen and Tarquin Blancquaert - had the opportunity to perform an In-Company Project on behalf of ONTOFORCE. ONTOFORCE is a young company developing a data analytics platform for application in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, named DISQOVER. By way of its semantic search technology, the database/platform seeks to maintain all individual forms of research-relevant data under one scalable cloud architecture. Overall, this report highlights the disruptive potential of 'Big Data' and semantic search technology for the pharmaceutical industry. As the latter is currently still experiencing a decline in R&D productivity, several strategies should be investigated in order to improve the drug development processing. Our main objective was to quantify the impact of (linked) data on R&D processes of Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies. More precisely we had to quantify the potential of ONTOFORCE's semantic search platform DISQOVER within R&D processes. Eventually we came up with a valuation model, which calculates the ROI (return on investment) and 'Wins per Day' of the DISQOVER platform towards its users. After conducting extensive research and interviewing many experts within the field, we believe that the model we created is well-thought-out and the assumptions are substantiated by expert opinions and academic literature. In addition, the model is highly flexible, providing the opportunity for users to fill in their own input regarding R&D, financial and market assumptions. In conclusion, the results of this project were positive, quantifiable and derivable, which was especially important considering the original objectives of the project. Considering these results, it is safe to note that the outcomes of quantifying ROI and 'Wins per Day' were attained with supportable assumptions. Our results are clearly reflecting the high potential of the platform. It should be noted that these results are still preliminary outcomes. Further integration of this tool by pharmaceutical companies' R&D projects will allow rendering the model outcomes more accurate as the latter will increasingly provide real company-originated input data (e.g. cycle time reductions). It is noteworthy that during our research we encountered two major future opportunities that would further lift the DISQOVER platform to a higher level. Firstly, there was a clear demand for a platform that starts to learn the user's movements and begins to recommend searches and bring relevant information to the reader through understanding of the searching behaviour. The truly valuable databases such as DISQOVER are those that can, besides allowing the user to search information, also send relevant information to the user based on its searching pattern and interests. In this way the user stays up-to-date at any time and can immediately anticipate on progresses made in the field. Secondly, further insights lent to us are that the ability of the platform to connect institutional knowledge based on clinical trial population would also be key, in order to pre-determine relevant populations for clinical trials, which is very time consuming. Finally, we would like to mention that throughout our project we could at any time rely on the best assistance from Hans Constandt (CEO and founder of ONTOFORCE) and Dr. Filip Pattyn (Scientific Lead at ONTOFORCE), and the knowledge of Walter Van Dyck (Associate Professor and Partner at Vlerick Business School). For this, we are very grateful towards them. Despite some difficulties we came across, we look back on the project as being very challenging and instructive, resulting in a very satisfying final result.
dc.language.isoen
dc.titleHow semantic searching can improve ROI of pharmaceutical projects
dc.source.numberofpages220
vlerick.knowledgedomainOperations & Supply Chain Management
vlerick.supervisorVan Dyck, Walter
dc.identifier.vperid31183
vlerick.companynameOntoforce
vlerick.companysupervisorConstandt, Hans
vlerick.programmeMFM
vlerick.typebusresprojectIn-Company Project


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