Serendipity and structured research in drug discovery

Abstract

There has been considerable discussion for many years concerning the necessary elements within an industrial pharmaceutical research complex which are favorable and conducive to innovative drug discovery. In the early days of the industry — from after World War II until 1962 — this subject was hardly discussed. A great number of new products were brought to the market place each year and research and development costs were relatively low while profits were more than satisfactory. However, since that time for a number of reasons which have already been enumerated in several other reviews, the cost of new drug research and development has increased exponentially and the number of new products coming to market each year has been abysmally low. As a result of pressure on both sides of the fulcrum, the cost to discover and bring to market a new drug in the United States at this writing approximates $ 80,000,000 and surely will rise to $ 100,000,000 by the end of the decade. If commercially successful products are not realized over a period of time, it becomes obvious that the profit picture deterioates, the equity of a company suffers, and management begins to consider various courses of action. This can take many forms, some of which are to change the organizational structure, alter the research targets, dismiss research personnel, bring in new leadership, evaluate what is being done, how it is done, and if satisfied leave it alone; if not, then seek to strengthen the weak links and move forward from there.