Pharma Lit: Elsevier Serves Pharma with Acquisitions of Ariadne, Quosa
By Kevin Davies
February 16, 2012 | “We have a history of servicing life sciences and drug discovery/drug development in the pharma industry,” says Alexander van Boetzelaer, managing director of corporate markets for the Dutch publishing giant Elsevier.
But while that history is based largely on serving up traditional scientific literature—Elsevier currently publishes some 2,000 academic titles, or what van Boetzelaer modestly calls “a sizeable business”—the needs of the pharma industry are changing. The volume of the medical literature is so vast and unwieldy that there is a premium on software tools that can navigate and digest the archives.
“We’ve seen demands from pharma grow as the complexity of science and the amount of data available increases. Our customers are coming to us looking for more than just access to scientific literature.”
Elsevier has made headlines lately with the acquisitions of pathway analysis firm Ariadne and Quosa, a text-mining software company, but the decision to broaden beyond journals dates back at least 5-6 years. “This did not happen overnight,” says van Boetzelaer, noting that Elsevier staff conducts hundreds of interviews with customers annually to gauge their satisfaction, needs, and pain points.
For example, in 2007 Elsevier bought the famous Beilstein Database. Now known as Reaxys, it has expanded from a purely inorganic chemistry database to a resource that helps researchers designing and synthesizing compounds to draw reactions in a much more interactive manner.
Elsevier also operates PharmaPendium, which provides electronic access to the FDA database, helping pharma view a host of preclinical and clinical safety data, providing valuable intelligence in designing early trials and avoiding mistakes.
Another key product is Embase, a database that sits above Medline and Elsevier’s proprietary content, providing in-depth information on drug discovery. And in 2010, Elsevier bought Collexis, with the goal of adding more value for customers.
More than Content
Elsevier management acknowledges that it needs to provide better access to all of its sizeable content, and one way of doing that is by incorporating visualization tools. Van Boetzelaer talks about a “Content/Technology/Platform” triangle to provide customer solutions. “They don’t need to wade through thousands of reactions or articles but get to the information relatively quickly and have a sense the search is relatively complete,” he says.
The goal of adding a visualization capability, particular in the area of biology and disease progression, was the prime reason behind the purchase of Ariadne. “They have a state-of-the-art text mining capability, fine-tuned for biology,” says van Boetzelaer. Together with Elsevier’s content, “there is an opportunity for a new solution.” Ariadne is best known for its flagship product Pathway Studio and its allied semantic technologies.
It was a similar proposition with text-mining company Quosa, providing another tool to help customers mine the scientific literature. “Our customers struggle with publishers’ proprietary content. They’re looking for ways to store and search and manage that content. We believe that’s a natural extension of our offering. Quosa provides a state-of-the-art software system, and combined with our own content, we can provide a truly value-added service.”
In particular, van Boetzelaer believes customers will be able to store and search their content and keep it accessible in a “copyright–compliant way.” That will be particularly important in pharma, where there are regulatory obligations and a strong incentive to search for adverse effects.
“We are committed to the Quosa and Ariadne products and will continue to invest in those areas. Existing customers should see improvements. We’re not stripping these assets. This is a direction we are committed to,” says van Boetzelaer. He adds that Elsevier will consider “any attractive opportunity,” but the immediate priorities are on integration.
The immediate priority is pharma. “We see an immediate need we can satisfy and monetize,” says van Boetzelaer. “But there’s a big use case in academia. Pharma companies are outsourcing fundamental research. To be successful, we need to bridge both.”
