The Numbers Game

If you have a love of mathematics then a career in pharma, at first glance, may not seem like a dream job, but dig deeper and you’ll find that effective pharmaceutical development is built on maths – particularly statistics. Stephen Pyke has a degree in mathematics and first decided to go into the actuary business, before quickly deciding that it was the wrong choice. After returning to university to complete a Masters in statistics, he gradually became interested in biology and pharmaceuticals. Today, Pyke is Senior Vice President of Clinical Projects and Quantitative Sciences at GlaxoSmithKline, UK, but he is also Vice President for Professional Affairs at the Royal Statistical Society (RSS). At the latter, he helps thrust statisticians into the limelight with the Award for Statistical Excellence in the Pharmaceutical Industry, a prize jointly sponsored by the RSS and the Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry (PSI) group. So, are pharmaceutical statisticians finally getting the recognition they deserve?

The winners of the 2015 Statistical Excellence in the Pharmaceutical Industry Award. Nicky Best (right) led the team at GlaxoSmithKline, which has implemented a process that has turned beliefs about the chances of success into formal prior distributions. Pfizer's Katrina Gore (left) was nominated for the prize for her contribution to the development of the Assay Capability Tool (ACT), designed to guide the development of drug discovery assays and to address issues of robustness and reproducibility in research.

The Award for Statistical Excellence in the Pharmaceutical Industry is jointly sponsored by the Royal Statistical Society and the Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry organizations. Each year, the Award is given to the most influential example of the application of an existing statistical practice, or the implementation of an innovative statistical practice, in the pharmaceutical industry. Although the organizations are based in the UK, they have members globally and international nominations for the award are welcome. The deadline for nominations for the 2016 award is midnight on March 31, 2016. Award winners will be notified by the end of April 2016. Questions about the awards should be sent to pharmastatsaward@rss.org.uk and more information is available at http://tmm.txp.to/0316/stats-ex
Previous winners include:

• Craig Mallinckrodt (2014, Eli Lilly & Company) for his book, Preventing and Treating Missing Data in Longitudinal Clinical Trials.
• Björn Bornkamp (2013, Novartis) for ‘Developing efficient statistical methodology and software for model-based design and analysis of Phase II dose-finding studies under model uncertainty’.
• Harry Southworth (2012, AstraZeneca) for ‘Producing a method of evaluating clinical laboratory safety data using extreme value modelling’.
• Phil Woodward (2011, Pfizer) for ‘A portfolio-wide implementation of a Bayesian framework for early clinical development within a major pharmaceutical company’.

Newsletters

Receive the latest analytical science news, personalities, education, and career development – weekly to your inbox.

I have read and understand the Privacy Notice*

Subscribe