UP FROM DESKTOPS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) for pharmaceutical research has long been the purview of specialty software suppliers and in-house systems developers. But seeing an opportunity to provide researchers with technology that can collect and analyze growing amounts of data, a handful of generalist IT companies are stepping up their activity in the field—very big companies with very familiar names. Personal computing giants Microsoft, Dell, and Google are moving beyond their traditional roles of providing desktop tools to researchers in drug discovery and development. In recent months, all three companies have introduced products designed to enable collaborative research. These products range from basic electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) to searching tools attuned to the language and data-processing requirements of health care and pharmaceutical scientists. Each company has launched a new marketing division specifically for the sector in hopes of building on a base of desktop computing systems. The market’s att...