The question, 'if you give the same molecule to two companies in phase I, would they be equally successful?' remains a defining one. The answer is clearly 'no,' so the more interesting question is 'why'?'—perhaps one of the most important questions for our industry. When we first asked ourselves that question, more than a decade ago, it followed a more soul-searching one: ‘what if we're wrong?’ A healthy question, but not one that is typical of consultancies.

Understanding how companies create value from their pipelines means being open to novel and multiple approaches - we produce this Index so that we know what we’re talking about when we talk about pharmaceutical innovation. If you like, we’re ‘following the science’ rather than assuming we’re right.