The pharmaceutical industry is vast and consequential, and as such, we expect transparency from its stakeholders. Transparency, however, is not the same as accessibility. The industry is perhaps one of the most complex systems we’ve ever created: private and public institutions collaborating within a system that must balance rigid regulation with the exploration of the biochemical unknown.

This complexity has produced a wealth of knowledge spanning policy, medicine, patents, clinical trials, and company operations. Science, IP, and regulation move together, but information about them often inhabits different domains. To add fuel to the fire, the inherently global value of medicines has resulted in a connected international landscape with varying regulatory philosophies and administrative styles.

This means that anyone interested in obtaining the full picture of a medicine must commit themselves to cross-referencing information across numerous sources. PharmaSignal is built to do that automatically by aggregating science, financials, IP, and policy news in one place, with source links and explicit limits on what the connected records establish.

My name is Saman Salmasi, and I am a law student with a background in pharmaceutical research and dispensing. I created PharmaSignal to keep up with industry news and the real-world nuances inherent in medicines. I wanted a tool that was easy to use, free, reliable, and designed for cross-referencing topics across disciplines.

I believe this information should be easier for others to access too. I created PharmaSignal and continue to develop it as a free public tool for anyone seeking a clearer view of the knowledge society considers essential and expects the pharmaceutical industry to make transparent.

The Research & Interpretation Guide explains what pharmaceutical records support, where inference begins, and what requires further investigation. See the worked apixaban example for an application of that method.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to reach out to me at Salmasi2@illinois.edu.