No easy solution.
The trend of R&D productivity decline has been frustratingly
stubborn, despite multiple attempts at reversing it through novel R&D schemes and corporate reorganizations.
This
inertia also proved
resistant
to the unfolding of major scientific & technological breakthroughs,
widely expected to accelerate drug discovery & development:
genomics, proteomics, combinatorial chemistry, parallel &
solid-state support synthesis, high-throughput screening, fluorescence
imaging, microfluidics, bioinformatics & protein crystallization.
Whereas high-throughput technologies are now showing
limitations, biotechnology has proven to be costly,
long-term & subject to political uncertainties (e. g. stem cells, GMOs).
Industry consolidation is also showing its
limits, as are price
raising, intense marketing to physicians and marketing directly to
patients. These latter strategies, in particular, are coming under
heavy attack when a drug is withdrawn for its side effects.
Pharmaceutical companies thus appear to be
running out of options to seek growth.
Chemylix has devised a
strategy - exploring a
new frontier in chemistry - to enable them to bring novel medicines to market and to patients.
