[R] R vs. Splus in Pharma/Devices Industry

[Douglas Bates]

On 6/15/07, Nicholas Lewin-Koh <nikko at hailmail.net> wrote:
> Hi,
> I just saw this thread. This issue, and the larger scale issue of open
> source in industry
> is being addressed. One has to realize that the behemoth that is the
> clinical aperatus
> of the pharma industry is very conservative and very slow to change. In
> many cases
> switching to R would meean changing a great many processes all based on
> legacy code. One
> of the big issues is that the industry demands consistency not
> necessarily correctness.
>
> All that said there are a great many areas where R could be used that
> would not impact
> regulatory submission, data security etc. Many in pharma are quietly
> working on this,
> but steps are small and incremental. Development takes time in industry
> because of the amount of
> documentation necessary. All this impacts the "free" nature of R and
> cost and risk (From the industries
> perspective) need to be justified.

> Probably when the statistical community is using Z big pharma will be
> ready to use
> R. %P

I think you mean A, not Z.  First there was S, then there was R.