Seminar in presence

Building BL26 – Room 1.25 (first floor)
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Via R. Lambruschini 4/B, 20156 Milano

Marc Lerchenmüller
University of Mannheim, Germany

Abstract:

Research in the life sciences begins with basic science and, for the most promising discoveries, can end with clinical trials that test the discovery in humans — the so-called bench-to-bedside research journey. The notion that science should be publicly funded because it ultimately leads to the betterment of society — the central pillar of post-World War II science policy — applies perhaps more to the life sciences than to any other discipline. Research highlights two fundamental challenges underlying the bench-to-bedside journey. First, the life sciences research enterprise may be misaligned with global health needs, raising questions about wasteful spending and health equity. Second, the journey to the bedside is extremely costly, with the average R&D expenditure per approved drug exceeding $1 billion. The two studies presented seek to provide evidence on these two fundamental challenges in the bench-to-bedside journey. The first study provides the first longitudinal assessment of the alignment of global research and burden of disease data over the past 20 years, using a triangulated large language model approach to link previously disparate datasets. The second study focuses on the testing of promising research discoveries in humans, analyzing the potential benefits of focusing on clinical trial designs that reduce the likelihood of making a Type II error — the premature rejection of a drug candidate that would ultimately have been shown to be safe and effective. Taken together, the studies offer ways of refocusing the life sciences research enterprise across the bench-to-bedside journey.

Marc Lerchenmüller is Assistant Professor of Technological Innovation and Management Science at the University of Mannheim and Research Fellow at the Centre for European Economic Research, a Leibniz Institute. His research focuses on the economics of innovation, in particular how incentives stimulate the creation and ultimately the application of scientific knowledge for the advancement of our societies. Before becoming an academic, he worked for the Boston Consulting Group in New York and cofounded two biotechnology companies, one of which was successfully exited and one of which is still in operation. He received his doctorate from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and Master degrees in Public Health from Yale and Financial Economics from Oxford.

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