For industries that depend on innovation, sustaining it is a constant challenge. This is particularly the case in biopharmaceuticals, where turning molecules into medicines is notoriously fraught with risk, and failure.
When one of us (Vivek) and his team launched Roivant Sciences in 2014 and began developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease — they were determined to learn from the pharma industry’s innovation issues and build a more sustainable innovation engine. After extensive assessment, they settled on two initiatives: realigning incentives for employees and systematically introducing outside talent and practices.