Big Pharma’s New Business Model
Drugs are designed around the individual biological receptor they’re targeting rather than being screened out of a library of random compounds. Deploying bigger tools no longer counts as much as having concentrated expertise in the particular pathway that causes a disease… The right size of a research team is now said to be 20-40 people. To get at new science early, drug makers rely on collaborations with academic research teams and licensing deals with smaller biotech outfits…
Companies are now aiming many of their new drugs at more serious maladies like cancer and Alzheimer’s, where successful new pills can command premiums over today’s mediocre medicines.
Full Wall Street Journal article by Scott Gottlieb on the coming changes to the drug market.
Sorry to see this.
Drug researchers have told me that if they can find any compound that has some reactive properties on a disease pathway, and a side-effect profile that is relatively safe, they will find a market for the compound as a drug. Sometimes this is good; sometimes it’s not so good. Numerous drugs have been approved for one use only to later find another (or a better use).
Very interesting point, Buster.
In the rsihtionealp between government and the economy, ideas influence policies and policies shape outcomes. This three-way connection is sometimes direct, sometimes tenuous, sometimes perverse. Of the three elements, the easiest to evaluate historically is outcomes. By almost any measure, the American economy is the most successful the world has ever known. Even in colonial times the standard of living was generally better in America, at least for whites, than in Europe or Asia. In the decades following the American Revolution, economic growth remained high and remarkably steady. By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States surpassed all other countries in both agricultural and industrial output. The U.S. economy is shaky for pretty much everybody. Not only is it bad for Americans, but lousy U.S. economy hits the whole world hard. The U.S. bailout measures are good for everyone worldwide, if the cash advances being made work like they’re intended to. However, some are insisting that the bailout is going to wreck the budget and make the deficit explode. Obama and others insist there will be cuts made that will make up for it. Regardless, let us hope that the short term loans we’re making will help to bring back the .