Helping the effective and efficient development of drugs

The Design of Experiments research group, consisting of academics from Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI) and Mathematics, has been awarded a £200,000 grant to research statistical methods to collect and model data from pharmaceutical experiments in the most efficient and effective way.

The research group will work with scientists in GSK’s Statistical Sciences and Product Development groups to discover and enhance key features of experimentation methodology.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for the Design of Experiments group that is one of the largest and most active teams of its kind in the world," said principal investigator Dr David Woods , Reader in Statistics at the University of Southampton.

"We have worked in partnership with GSK for about nine years and are delighted to have this opportunity to ensure that our research with the company will have direct impact on the process development of new medicines," he said.

As well as providing efficiencies in drug development , the new statistical models could also help GSK play its part in caring for the environment and green chemistry by conserving resources through running a fewer number of carefully targeted experiments.

Co-investigator Sue Lewis , Professor of Statistics at the University of Southampton, said: "We will be working with chemists, statisticians and engineers at GSK in the UK and USA to integrate our findings into their existing and new chemical and pharmaceutical research and development.

"Our own research will benefit by having our new ideas trialled in the real world."

GSK Quality by Design Innovation Leader, Martin Owen, said: "The ‘aha’ moment in drug discovery is the stuff that makes the headlines, but behind every medicine we make available to patients, there lies a rigorous and intensive drug development process. At the heart of this optimisation process are data and models that have to be sufficiently robust to explain and predict the science that underpins the control strategies we use. The collaboration between GSK and the University of Southampton is an ambitious initiative to make our knowledge generation more effective and efficient, by increasing our understanding of different strategic approaches."


John Whittaker, Vice President, Statistical and Platform Sciences said: ‘’ Statistical thinking is key to the development of the manufacturing process needed to make a medicine, and we're delighted to be further expanding our capacity in this area by collaboration on this exciting project. More generally, our long term partnership with the Design of Experiments research group is a great example of the synergy that industry-academic collaborations can generate "

The project will last for three years and will also fund a new Research Fellow.