RSS Professional Statisticians’ Forum Webinar

A free-to-attend, telephone-based (virtual) meeting for professional statisticians (holders of CStat and GradStat status)

 

Thursday 15 October 2015, 2:00pm – 3:30pm BST

 

Driving the Robustness of Preclinical Research within the Pharmaceutical Industry

Katrina Gore, Director, Pfizer Research Statistics

Joint winner of the 2015 RSS / PSI prize for statistical excellence in the pharmaceutical industry

 

Abstract
It is unusual to pick up a recent issue of Nature or Science that doesn’t include an article on the issue of non-reproducible research. It would seem that research is plagued by findings that are not reliable and cannot be reproduced. The pharmaceutical industry is not immune to these same issues. Replication of published research findings is a key component of drug target identification and provides confidence to progress internal drug projects. Additionally, we use data from internal assays to assess the biological and pharmacokinetic activity, selectivity and safety of novel compounds, and to make decisions that impact their progression towards clinical development. While pharmaceutical companies often employ statisticians specifically to engage with research scientists, the ratio of statisticians to scientists is typically low. This talk will describe the role of a preclinical statistician, outline the key challenges they face and focus on the Assay Capability Tool. The ACT was created by Research Statistics within Pfizer to guide the development of drug discovery assays and to address issues of robustness and reproducibility in research. It promotes easy to follow but absolutely essential experimental design strategies and represents the distilled experience of the provision of over three decades of statistical support to laboratory scientists. 

 

 

Further details available online at:  www.rss.org.uk/psf

 

 

 

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PSF meetings provide a forum for professional statisticians to share professional experiences and discuss professional development.

 

 

Stephen Pyke

Professional Affairs Committee, RSS