Advancing Science & Technologies

In 2007, we invested more than $2.5 billion in research and development, an increase of 8.5 percent over the previous year. Our products span the spectrum of care, from prevention and diagnosis to management and treatment. Our scientists pursue next-generation medicines, develop new and better ways to manage and treat chronic diseases, create technologies that diagnose diseases more accurately, advance vascular care, and improve health through nutrition.

See our latest Annual Report for research and development initiatives and our product pipeline.

Science: "A Very Directed Walk"

Interview with Brian Spear, Director of Scientific Affairs, Global Pharmaceutical Research and Development

What is the role of science at Abbott?

We help patients by discovering new medicines. Abbott scientists focus on diseases and conditions that are untreated or where current treatments are inadequate. This entails a thorough understanding of these conditions, how they come about in the human body, how the human body can be affected by making chemical and biological changes from the outside. We can't do that without doing extensive chemical synthesis and discovery to find compounds that can modulate the body, or without years of intense research to determine if a new chemical entity is effective and safe.

How do science and business work together?

We're all in this together. Scientists are an active, everyday part of the culture here. In our organization, science and business work together.

How do you decide what treatments to pursue?

The beginning of any drug discovery program is to clearly define the medical or scientific problem we need to solve. We look for a disease or condition that is inadequately treated. Then, we think through what type of treatment would be effective, how a treatment would affect an individual's chemistry and how patients would take it. We consider its formulation and possible side effects. We do not ask whether is it a good chemical, but whether it is a good medicine. From there, we put together a target product profile for a safe, effective medicine including how it would be administered. This gives our scientists a clear understanding of their goals. Science is a very directed walk.

How would you describe Abbott's pharmaceutical scientists?

They're drug hunters. Our people have an excellent sense of which chemical will be an effective medicine and which one will fall by the wayside. They are absolutely devoted to pursuing that end, it's all-consuming, and that's what we look for in a scientist. We have tremendous diversity among the people who make up the team – diversity of country of origin, scientific specialty, gender, age and experience. People bring different eyes to scientific questions, and it really increases the power of our ideas.

What is Abbott's role in the greater scientific community?

We're contributing to the greater body of scientific knowledge. For instance, we're among the first companies to be involved in and contribute to the formation of the Serious Adverse Events Consortium. We also publish extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Publishing is an external quality control which assures that we're thinking objectively and rigorously. If we're out there sharing our results and ideas, and if we're open with our science, other people will in turn be open with us.