The cost of not sharing
03/01/2000
by Hank Rahe
Most improvements in life sciences technologies are incremental. Generally, they are achieved through the efforts of many people sharing their experiences, and this shared knowledge forms the building blocks that enable technology to advance. So what is the cost of not sharing? For industry the cost is astronomically high.
Unfortunately, because we work within regulated industries, the task of clearing scientific papers through the legal department is daunting for some. This comes at a great cost to technology and industry.
The emotional strain of taking a paper through the legal maze is such that many potential authors simply give up rather than accept the small amount of information that they can ultimately share. Typical reasons given for not allowing information to be published are that the information may give the company a competitive advantage or that the readers can place blame on the company based on the information.
The reasoning behind the competitive advantage argument holds little credence.
Withholding or not sharing such information causes anyone interested in understanding to go through the discovery phase because there is no baseline established. Resources spent on rediscovering the same information is both costly and time consuming.
What value does this bring to the company that chooses not to share important industry data? The answer is simple: that company sets a tone which causes other companies to react in the same manner. This non sharing of information can become contagious.
My recent experience is based on getting major pharmaceutical companies to discuss information gained during the testing of biological safety cabinets to determine their ability to contain. The results of such testing are important because they can impact thousands of people using these devices.
Testing conducted by these companies can help to explain why the results of air sampling and setting plates sometimes are entirely different. The information would be most helpful as a launching pad for additional investigation of the current technology. Understanding that particles depending on size react differently to air flows would help interested individuals better understand the need for changing the current paradigm.
The second reason is of greater concern because if taken to the extreme it results in almost all knowledge being withheld. It is easier to withhold it all than to separate anything that may be confidential to the company.
One of the primary reasons the life sciences have advanced is its characteristic unique sharing of information between companies. As our legal system erodes this ability to share we lose our ability to make the incremental improvements that have led to reduced cost and improved quality.
How can we stop this erosion? It is too late to follow the guidance of the founders of the United States which forbade solicitors from entering the country. Our only hope is management that may begin to understand the cost of being "safe" in the area of sharing of information.
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Hank Rahe is director of technology at Contain-Tech in Indianapolis. He has over 30 years' experience in the healthcare industry, as well as four years in academia. He is an expert in the areas of conventional and advanced aseptic processing. He is the past chairman of the board of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers, and is a member of the CleanRooms Editorial Advisory Board.