Issues and Considerations in the Application of Data Mining ◾ 133
In the Pharmaceutical Industry
Similar to most industries, the history of data storage, collection, and processing
in the pharmaceutical industry began with data written by hand or typewriter on
a collection of note cards that were stored at a central location. Prior to the 1970s,
most science research companies had their own libraries where they kept critical
information such as chemical components, melting points, reactions, and so on. As
technology advanced, the storage of scientic information maintained pace, put-
ting information on microlm and on the enormous-sized early computers of the
1960s (Balakin and Ekins 2010).
ere are not many industries that have as many var