McLaren's relationship with U.K. drugmaker GSK "goes much deeper than the usual array of corporate sponsors," according to Andrew Ward of the FINANCIAL TIMES. For the past three years, GSK "has been working with McLaren to find ways of making its drug development and manufacturing processes more efficient." It "might not be immediately obvious what GSK has to learn from a company best known for its supercars and motor-racing team." The speed of F1 "could hardly be more different from the 10-15-year development cycles typical of the pharmaceuticals industry." But McLaren Applied Technologies VP Geoff McGrath said that "his company’s strengths in precision engineering and data analytics are just the kind of skills needed by GSK as it aims to become more productive." He said, "We don’t know anything about discovering new molecules. But we do know how to analyze information in a way that may help them reach their end goals faster." Perhaps the clearest dividend of the partnership so far "has come not in drug development but in GSK’s consumer healthcare business." McLaren "was asked to scrutinise a toothpaste manufacturing facility in Maidenhead and work out how to boost efficiency." Within a year, lost time had been cut by 60%, "using principles similar to those that govern the pit-stops." Perhaps the biggest ambitions for the partnership "come in research and development." Much of the cost and time it takes to develop a drug "is consumed in the clinical trial process needed to prove safety and efficacy." McLaren "is working with GSK on technology to allow real-time monitoring of patients rather than the sporadic check-ups that can sometimes lead to unreliable trial results." Telemetric sensors of the kind used to measure performance in F1 cars "have been adapted to measure the mobility of stroke survivors taking part in a GSK drug trial" (
FT, 12/10).
