Year: 2012-13

Company: Eli Lilly & Co.

Liaison(s): Brian Cooley, Brett Huff, Carrie Smith

Eli Lilly was incorporated in 1881 and even after more than a century, it continues to be at the forefront of pharmaceutical research. Lilly has been a leader in the industry for both small-molecule development as well as biologics research. It has pioneered many areas in the industry, being the first company to successfully produce and deliver penicillin on a large scale, as well as the first to use recombinant DNA techniques to manufacture insulin for production. Traditionally, pharmaceutical projects have been managed, scoped and led through cross-functional internal project teams focused on delivering a new medicine that meets the requirements of two key documents: the Draft Launch Label (DLL) and the Manufacturing Marketed Forms Agreement (MMFA). Typically, these documents contain a set of manufacturing and launch requirements that are created by medical, marketing, regulatory, manufacturing, quality and product development. While this process can be effective, it is believed that additional value may be gained by using co-creation techniques with customers at time points earlier than the DLL and MMFA to create more robust and complete product design requirements. The hypothesis is that we often neglect to consider all of the stakeholder interests during development that could lead to a more valuable product in terms of improved patient outcomes and a lower cost of care. In order to address these issues, the Lilly TMP team conducted research on application of co-creation to the Lilly drug design and development process. We then identified, developed, and refined six separate engagement platforms that will serve to incorporate Lilly customers more effectively in the design process as a means to improve the end value of their products. Towards that goal, we conducted interviews and a survey with the Lilly development teams as well as experts in Clinical Trials, Patient Advocacy, Legal and Information Technology to determine processes that would help Lilly interact more effectively with its customers. We are currently incorporating feedback from the interviews and the survey to define metrics for success and devise a plan for implementation of a pilot study at Lilly for the top two engagement platforms.