Discovery, innovation and the cyclical nature of the pharmaceutical business

• Published in: Drug Discovery Today Vol. 7; no. 10; pp. 563 - 568
• Main Authors: Schmid, Esther F, Smith, Dennis A
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 15.05.2002; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; blockbuster drugs; Drug Design; Drug Industry - methods; Drug Industry - trends; drug sales; General pharmacology; human genome; innovation; Medical sciences; pharmaceutical R&D; Pharmaceutical technology. Pharmaceutical industry; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Time Factors; innovation; pharmaceutical R&D; blockbuster drugs; Pharmaceutical Science; human genome; Drug Discovery; drug sales; Human; Improvement; Innovation; Psychotropic; Calcium antagonist; Antidepressant agent; Active ingredient; Review; Genome; Pharmaceutical industry; Research and development; Public health
• ISSN: 1359-6446; 1878-5832
• DOI: 10.1016/S1359-6446(02)02266-3

Unlike many recent articles, which paint the future of the pharmaceutical industry in gloomy colours, this article provides an optimistic outlook. It explores the foundations on which the pharmaceutical industry has based its outstanding successes. Case studies of important drug classes underpin the arguments made and provide the basis for the authors’ argument that recent technological breakthroughs and the unravelling of the human genome will provide a new wave of high quality targets (substrate) on which the industry can build. The article suggests that in a conducive environment that understands the benefits that pharmaceuticals provide to healthcare, those players who can base their innovation on a sufficient scale and from a large capital base will reshape the industry.