Casual readers will readily assent – the three means towards effectiveness seem obvious...

Those involved in R&D pursuits realize how very difficult they can be to achieve. The pharmaceutical industry best illustrates these challenges. There are (at least ) six dimensions to the evidence: the drug molecule, the biologic target, safety alerts, the target patients, surrogate measures (e.g., for asymptomatic diseases), and the disease itself. Evidence Gathering across these six dimensions must tie together into a single package that makes money in the face of the competition. In the pharmaceutical industry, these variables are big contributors to what is termed the Commercial Equation⁺. The chart below lists some of the challenges. There are analogous challenges in most industries.

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Working on the Right Pursuit

Get any one of the six dimensions wrong and you’re potentially working on the wrong pursuit in the other five.

Working Together Towards a Common Pursuit

Changes in direction for any one dimension, which happens often, can change the direction in the other five.

Maximizing Useful Evidence from Each Study

Each study should seek evidence across as many dimensions as possible, but often one dimension must wait for further optimization of another (e.g., the molecule) before being able to gather its evidence.

More Core Arguments for Evidence Gathering