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

[Nicholas Lewin-Koh]

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

Nicholas