BioWorld. Link to homepage.

Clarivate
  • BioWorld
  • BioWorld MedTech
  • BioWorld Asia
  • BioWorld Science
  • Data Snapshots
    • BioWorld
    • BioWorld MedTech
  • Special reports
    • Aging
    • Biosimilars
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Coronavirus
    • IVDs on the rise
    • Radiopharmaceuticals
    • Science '22 in Review
    • Top Biopharma Trends of 2022
    • Top Med-tech Trends of 2022
    • Premium reports
      • BioWorld Financings Reports
      • Disease Incidence & Prevalence Summaries

BioWorld. Link to homepage.

  • sign in
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Subscribe
BioWorld - Friday, September 22, 2023
Home » Blogs » BioWorld Perspectives » Pfizer’s Greg Simon Talks Change Blindness in Drug Development

BioWorld Perspectives
BioWorld Perspectives RSS FeedRSS

BioWorld

Pfizer’s Greg Simon Talks Change Blindness in Drug Development

Oct. 20, 2011
By Trista Morrison
No Comments

If you walked up to a desk to sign a consent form for an experiment, and the person behind the desk bent down to file your form, and a different person stood up – someone with a clearly different face, different hair, even a different colored shirt – would you notice?

As this video shows, 75 percent of people don’t – illustrating a phenomenon known as change blindness.

French researcher J. Kevin O'Regan explains change blindness thus: “a very large change in a picture will not be seen by a viewer, if the change is accompanied by a visual disturbance that prevents attention from going to the change location.” Essentially, the brain seems to select what’s important in a scene before deciding to store the information, and it cannot detect changes to elements it has not stored.

It’s the principle behind card tricks and movie magic – and it can prevent drug developers from seeing the bigger picture.

As Greg Simon, senior vice president for patient engagement at Pfizer Inc., explained during last week’s Foley & Lardner Life Sciences conference, part of the problem is that individuals are not objective – we pick and choose what’s important, and what deserves our focus, but we are “pools of irrational influences.” What we choose to focus on creates blind spots.

For example, he said, if you focus on venture capital, you will miss the new movement in passion capital, through which nonprofits are increasingly stepping up with significant funding. If you focus on p-values, you will miss the patient experience – something Pfizer is trying to remedy through more outreach to the 150,000 patients who participate in its trials each year. If you focus on regulatory approval, you’re “only going to get half way around the track” because you’ll miss payer value, Simon said. And if you focus on the cost of research and development, you will miss the value of what you bring to society.

Here’s another cool video on change blindness.

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

Popular Stories

  • Today's news in brief

    BioWorld
    BioWorld briefs for Sept. 22, 2023.
  • Today's news in brief

    BioWorld MedTech
    BioWorld MedTech briefs for September 22, 2023.
  • Hands holding torn contract

    Quite a fix: Orthofix sacks three top execs

    BioWorld MedTech
    Orthofix Medical Inc. terminated its CEO, chief financial officer and chief legal officer in a move that plunged the stock from $18.63 at Monday’s close to $13.01...
  • New NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors named in PTC Therapeutics patent

    BioWorld Science
    PTC Therapeutics Inc. has patented new NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors reported to be useful...
  • Illustration of Alzheimer’s in the brain.

    Study identifies cause of death for Alzheimer’s neurons

    BioWorld
    By creating a new mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease that better recapitulated how the disease plays out in humans, investigators at KU Leuven have gained new...
BioFuture ad

BioWorld Premium

Enjoy extended coverage for the most complete market view with BioWorld, BioWorld MedTech, and BioWorld Asia in a single, easy to access subscription.

Subscribe
  • BioWorld
    • Today's news
    • Analysis and data insight
    • Clinical
    • Data Snapshots
    • Deals and M&A
    • Financings
    • Newco news
    • Opinion
    • Regulatory
    • Science
  • BioWorld MedTech
    • Today's news
    • Clinical
    • Data Snapshots
    • Deals and M&A
    • Financings
    • Newco news
    • Opinion
    • Regulatory
    • Science
  • BioWorld Asia
    • Today's news
    • Analysis and data insight
    • Australia
    • China
    • Clinical
    • Deals and M&A
    • Financings
    • Newco news
    • Regulatory
    • Science
  • BioWorld Science
    • Today's news
    • Biomarkers
    • Cancer
    • Conferences
    • Endocrine/Metabolic
    • Immune
    • Infection
    • Neurology/Psychiatric
    • Patents
  • More
    • About
    • Advertise with BioWorld
    • Archives
    • Article reprints and permissions
    • Contact us
    • Cookie policy
    • Copyright notice
    • Data methodology
    • Podcasts
    • Privacy policy
    • Share your news with BioWorld
    • Staff
    • Terms of use
Follow Us

Copyright ©2023. All Rights Reserved. Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing