The general trend towards downsizing among large multinational pharmaceutical companies has resulted in a lowered training capacity. It is vital that key skills are not lost and the DDPG recognizes that there is a window of opportunity to retain and develop world class talent. To this end, a skills sub-group has been formed to address these issues, of which the British Pharmacological Society is an active member.
A number of the individual member societies within the Drug Discovery Skills Group (DDSG) have created skills statements. These outline the skills requirements for medicine development within each of theirindividual disciplines:
It is important that scientists in any specific discipline have a working knowledge of other key disciplines; thus the groups are working towards a cross-discipline skills audit based on these statements. Interaction and close cooperation with those working in different subject areas is vital in order to facilitate effective meaningful exchange of data and information so that everyone may contribute to intelligent decision-making within the drug design and development process.