Understanding the IT-Life Science Connection

Here is one all of need to pay attention to--the connection between IT and the life
sciences is increasingly important. This is an important insight for those working on
building IT and/or bioscience clusters.

• Total IT spending (R&D and non-R&D) for the combined pharmaceutical and
biotechnology industries will grow at a CAGR of 7.01% for the U.S. and 7.51%
worldwide through 2008.

• R&D IT spending for the combined pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries
will grow at a CAGR of 7.99% for the U.S. and 9.11% worldwide through 2008.
R&D growth rates for pharmaceutical companies will be lower than years past for
several reasons: pharmaceutical companies continue to merge and consolidate
and account for capital depreciation from rapid growth over the last five years; in
light of decreasing numbers of blockbuster drugs, the industry as a whole is
moving to cut costs; with the increasing bargaining power of buyers of drugs (e.g.
Medicare) and the globalization of the market (e.g. discounted drugs from
Canada), the industry is moving to cut costs including R&D and R&D IT spending;
and pharmaceutical companies will favor R&D alliances with biotechnology
companies in lieu of rapidly growing their own in-house R&D programs.

• R&D IT spending for agricultural biotechnology companies will grow at a CAGR of
8.64% within the U.S. and 10.28% worldwide – primarily due to increased R&D
spending for the development of GMO products in countries such as India and
Australia.

• Industry drivers, such as a desire to decrease the times and costs associated with
clinical trials, will drive innovation and technology development within the IT
sector.

• Application areas such as biomarker discovery and validation, pharmaco- and
toxicogenomics, and systems biology will drive innovation and technology
development within the genomic, proteomic, and IT sectors.

Download the report here.