By Daniel R. Matlis
No, it’s not insider trading. This is perfectly legal.
Today, Siemens announced that it will acquire UGS Corporation. UGS’ software portfolio covers the entire array of collaborative Product Data Management (cPDM), computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing/computer-aided engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE) and digital manufacturing simulation (‘digital factory’).
During this morning’s analyst conference call, Siemens CEO Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld communicated his company’s vision to connect UGS’ Digital factory know-how with Siemens’ long standing tradition in industrial automation.
“We are going to see in the future that the combination of the digital factory as well as the real factory will shorten the time from early idea of a product to production of the product by 30%” said Dr. Kleinfeld. He continued “not only will we shorten the time, but we will also be able, due to simulation over the process, to clearly have a more reliable process and a more reliable product.”
If you have been reading Life-Science Panorama for some time, this might remind you of the article I wrote on “Total Business Integration”. That article was prompted by the announcement by UGS’s rival PTC of the integration of Windchill and Arbortext.
According to Helmut Gierse, Group President for Siemens A&D, “we will be the first fully integrate solution provider for an integrated software and hardware across the complete lifecycle of products”.
How does this impact Life-Sciences?
According to The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), it takes 10 to 15 years to get a new drug to market. As our industry moves from discovering new therapies to designing them, we have the unique opportunity to benefit from this fully integrated process.
So here is how you make your 12.5 Billion:
I’m sure you heard that every day you shorten a new drug’s time to market it represents a couple Million Dollars.
Cutting 30% off the typical 12 year cycle represents savings of 1314 days, which in turn mean over 2.6 Billion Dollars.
OK, you probable won’t get to keep all $2.6 Billion, but perhaps you’ll get a nice clock engraved with your company’s logo?