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Research

Our strategy: targeted R&D to maximize our therapeutic impact to help patients

How can we remain at the cutting-edge of therapeutic innovation when we are up against ultra-agile start-ups and the considerable resources of “Big Pharma”.
To tackle this challenge facing mid-size pharmaceutical companies, we took two key decisions with respect to R&D.

  1. Focus on the four therapeutic areas that represent areas of excellence for our Group: oncology, neurology, immuno-inflammation and cardiometabolism and venous diseases. This focus enables us to more effectively allocate our R&D resources and expertise, thereby optimizing our chances to develop new therapeutic solutions for patients more rapidly.
  2. Orient our R&D efforts to areas with considerable unmet medical needs. As such, in oncology, the Group targets rare cancers and cancers that present specific mutations, including certain digestive, brain and blood cancers. This approach enables us to offer solutions where few companies are investing. We aim to develop therapies that will change the lives of patients, either by improving the quality of life of people living with chronic conditions with Single Pill Combinations1 (adherence to treatment), or by meeting previously unmet needs.

Our agile, pragmatic, patient-oriented scientific strategy

To implement our R&D strategy, we harness four drivers.

Patient focus

At Servier, this means working with and for patients, their representatives and patient organizations, right from the exploratory research phase as well as throughout the preclinical and clinical phases to speed up research, development and marketing of treatments that truly meet patient needs. Integrating patients’ point of view is essential as it guides us through the medicine’s use phase, enabling us to adapt it to real-life experience.

Precision medicine

This is all about developing the right medicine for the right patient from the outset by using biomarkers to identify those most likely to respond positively to the treatment (patient selection). In oncology, our R&D focuses on targeted therapies (to treat an alteration in the cancerous cell) and immuno-oncology (to stimulate the immune system).

Tech platforms

Our Group has chosen to concentrate on a certain number of therapeutically promising tech platforms in order to fully exploit their potential (small molecules, monoclonal antibodies and their derivatives).

The “One Innovation Engine” approach

This approach serves as a catalyst for innovation. It makes it possible to take advantage of innovative opportunities in-house or beyond the Group and encourages cross-functionality collaboration, open innovation, and fruitful cooperation with the scientific community, as demonstrated by the Group basing its R&D operations at Paris-Saclay and taking part in numerous collaborative projects at the platform. This approach enables the Group to remain agile and able to tap into innovation at its source.

Harnessing data and AI to accelerate therapeutic innovation

It takes around 10 years to develop a new medicine, and only 10% of the molecules tested pass every stage to reach the market. To accelerate the pace of research and maximize the chances a new treatment will successfully reach the end of the development process, we leverage data and artificial intelligence. Our Group has integrated AI into several R&D business cases to more rapidly develop new molecules and optimize clinical trials. This technology becomes crucial in a rapidly changing scientific environment, offers fresh perspectives from the preclinical and clinical research phases and helps to reduce the time required to make the new medicine available. It therefore offers hope to patients.

Furthermore, to expand our digital capabilities, we develop solid partnerships with tech leaders such as Google Cloud and cutting-edge platforms.

For example, our collaboration with Aitia on “digital twins” models organs and systems to simulate the potential effect of the candidate drugs being tested. Similarly, the partnership with Owkin was set up to identify new therapeutic targets and biomarkers using AI, especially in oncology.


1 Single Pill Combinations simplify complex treatments by grouping several medicines in one pill.