Research & Development opportunities

In the context of the health model of tomorrow, whose primary focus is sustainable health solutions, Janssen Research & Development is targeting opportunities for sustainable healthcare: prevention and diagnostics, continuous exchange of information, therapy compliance, ease of use and personalized care.
Prevention & diagnostics

Prevention is better than cure. As a consequence of our ever-increasing scientific knowledge about the human body, research in the future will more and more often focus on the actual underlying mechanisms of illnesses. Once an underlying mechanism has been found, the first crucial step in this future research model will be to find a diagnostic tool which can be used, right from the very start, to indicate that an illness is developing.
The next step is to find a medicine that can halt the disease process. The greatest challenge in this will be making the shift from reactive, curative medicines to proactive, therapeutic solutions which undermine the disease before it has a chance to break through.
Clever materials and technologies

Thanks to 'clever packaging' with built-in technologies such as radio signals, it will be possible to register the path the medication is taking at any moment in time during its distribution to wholesalers, pharmacies or hospitals. This allows timely intervention if something unexpected or undesirable occurs. Smart materials and technologies can be used to develop mini-sensors, with the aim of monitoring the treatment and providing means of simplifying it.
Therapy compliance

The success of a therapy largely depends on the patient correctly and consistently taking his medication. New technological developments will strongly improve and support therapy compliance. For example, it will be possible to monitor the behavior of the patient through new applications for smartphones.
Ease of use

People have much higher expectations with regard to comfort and user-friendliness than before. They expect solutions that are more integrated into their daily lives. Think, for example, of the smartphone, which combines many functions in one device. This development is also to be expected in the healthcare sector. Taking just one pill per day that gradually releases the active ingredient increases the chances of good compliance.
Continuous exchange of information

Janssen works together with governments, other pharmaceutical companies, relevant companies, universities and research centers as partners, and it is therefore a point of honor to make its research results known and to share them with these partners, always with the intention of working more efficiently and more effectively on innovative healthcare solutions.
The collection and centralization of so much clinical and anonymous patient data by various partners in large databanks is called the ‘big data’ trend. Scientists unleash statistical analyses on these millions of data in order to gain a deeper insight into the mechanism of a disease and the various subtypes of that disease as well as into the patients. On the basis of this knowledge, personalized medicines can then be tailored to the needs of individual patients.
Personalized care

Therapies and medications will need to be better adapted to the individual needs of patients, because we are gaining more knowledge about their genetic profile, their metabolism and the specific diseases they are suffering from.
Janssen aims to evolve towards an individualized risk assessment in the approach to certain diseases. Every patient should receive the correct treatment, at the correct dosage and at the correct time.