Considerations for implementing an informatics system to support biologics drug discovery

A comprehensive, well-functioning and scientifically aware informatics environment is of the utmost importance in supporting effective drug discovery programs. However, implementing such a system can, without a carefully crafted and enacted strategy, be a disruptive and time-consuming process, fraught with risks of cost overruns and the potential to end up with a system that ultimately does not meet the ever-evolving needs of the organization. In this review, using our experience from the software provider perspective, we discuss how a drug discovery organization should approach the task of selecting an informatics system to support its research discovery programs. We focus on biologics drug discovery because: (i) in general, biologics informatics is less mature than small-molecule discovery; (ii) there is a great deal of activity in biologics drug discovery, from new biologics-only companies to established small-molecule companies extending into biologics programs; and (iii) by their nature, biologics can be more challenging than small molecules to support, owing to the size, complexity and diversity of biologics entities. These factors make decisions about which system(s) to implement even more challenging.