When entering a horizontal logistics alliance, companies can expect a significant cost decrease. In this paper, we show that when the partners in an alliance adopt a flexible attitude (i.e. allow changes to the terms of their deliveries), the total cost can be further decreased. We argue that the method used to allocate the total cost to the different partners should therefore encourage such flexibility. A case study of three companies in Belgium achieves a 25.83% decrease in transportation costs. Allocating this collaborative gain with the Shapley value, the individual gains range from 19.01% to 37.56%. By allowing changes to delivery dates and allowing large orders to be split into several deliveries, the partners in the alliance can increase the collaborative gain and their individual gains. The Shapley value is found to encourage flexibility.
Analyses of healthcare databases (claims, electronic health records [EHRs]) are useful supplements to clinical trials for generating evidence on the effectiveness, harm, use, and value of medical products in routine care. A constant stream of data from the routine operation of modern healthcare systems, which can be analyzed in rapid cycles, enables incremental evidence development to support accelerated and appropriate access to innovative medicines. Evidentiary needs by regulators, Health Technology Assessment, payers, clinicians, and patients after marketing authorization comprise (1) monitoring of medication performance in routine care, including the materialized effectiveness, harm, and value; (2) identifying new patient strata with added value or unacceptable harms; and (3) monitoring targeted utilization. Adaptive biomedical innovation (ABI) with rapid cycle database analytics is successfully enabled if evidence is meaningful, valid, expedited, and transparent. These principles will bring rigor and credibility to current efforts to increase research efficiency while upholding evidentiary standards required for effective decision-making in healthcare.
The objective of this paper is to identify the extent to which real world data (RWD) is being utilized, or could be utilized, at scale in drug development. Through screening peer-reviewed literature, we have cited specific examples where RWD can be used for biomarker discovery or validation, gaining a new understanding of a disease or disease associations, discovering new markers for patient stratification and targeted therapies, new markers for identifying persons with a disease, and pharmacovigilance. None of the papers meeting our criteria was specifically geared toward new novel targets or indications in the biopharmaceutical sector; the majority were focused on the area of public health, often sponsored by universities, insurance providers or in combination with public health bodies such as national insurers. The field is still in an early phase of practical application, and is being harnessed broadly where it serves the most direct need in public health applications in early, rare and novel disease incidents. However, these exemplars provide a valuable contribution to insights on the use of RWD to create novel, faster and less invasive approaches to advance disease understanding and biomarker discovery. We believe that pharma needs to invest in making better use of EHRs and the need for more precompetitive collaboration to grow the scale of this 'big denominator' capability, especially given the needs of precision medicine research.
Because of growing congestion problems and environmental and safety considerations, freight transportation becomes more and more a key issue in logistics in particular and in the industrial process in general. The transportation mode choice is still often made in a rather irrational way. This paper presents the outcome of surveys conducted in Belgian industry about the logistics decision maker’s perception concerning the transportation modes. The different choice criteria are determined and weighted. Finally an interactive Internet tool is presented in order to support the transportation mode decision process. The paper provides insights into the logistics process to the authorities, but above all offers a tool to individual decision makers in the transportation mode selection.
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