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Scientific Journals Of Drug Discovery

Technology has been a major driver of advances in drug discovery. Automation, nanofluidics, imaging, software and assay technologies have played a major role in getting better data, faster.

 

Is drug discovery at such an advanced state that further improvements are no longer needed or cost-effective? There are different opinions on this and much of the evidence is anecdotal, but technology innovation is critical to the improvement of the drug discovery process and worth discussing.

Over the course of a year I attend 4 or 5 drug discovery conferences in the US and Europe. This gives me a good opportunity to visit exhibits, attend presentations and read posters. However, the best part of these meetings is the chance to discuss drug discovery with colleagues. The usual conversation at these meetings is: “See anything new?” And the response is most often: “No, nothing.” In 2009 the conversation often led to the state of innovation in drug discovery technology.

I was surprised over the universal response that it had declined significantly. The comments were often much stronger than that, but the point was clear. It didn’t matter if the conversation was with senior executives, bench scientists or technology developers involved in product R&D; they all believe that innovation has declined. This decline is not a recent phenomenon, but has been growing since the economic downturn of 2002 – a good part of a decade.

This is not an in-depth review of all that has occurred in drug discovery over the past 10 years. It is a personal view developed by first-hand experience and discussions with scientists in industry and academia.

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