Lundbeck joins with Elsevier to help manage R&D data

Denmark’s Lundbeck has signed an agreement with information business Elsevier, that aims to help organize the masses of scientific data it has available, and make drug research more productive and efficient. The companies have created a big data project that creates a comprehensive database of chemistry and bioactivity to help its research into psychiatric and neurological conditions. They said the new deal is based on Elsevier’s Reaxys information service that quickly retrieves literature, compound properties, and chemical reaction data. The companies have identified that one of the challenges facing the industry is managing and using the vast amount of data that is available to researchers.
The fragmented nature of life sciences R&D – which often involves having dozens of labs with hundreds of scientists scattered across different countries – can make it very difficult for firms to know what experiments have already been conducted. As a result, researchers frequently end up unnecessarily duplicating experiments already done by their colleagues.