Why Academic Drug Discovery?
Scientific progress in the biomedical sciences has accelerated enormously over the last two to three decades. The cellular signal transduction processes and biochemical pathways that enable life are increasingly understood at the molecular level, and the aberrations that result in disease can be defined within this rational context. Additionally, with the sequencing of the human and other genomes, the identity of the cast in this drama of life is known with ever greater certainty. Technology to enable discovery of ligands for molecular targets has also advanced such that many complimentary approaches exist for creating small molecule tools to interrogate biological processes.
However, even as basic science and technology seem poised to create a revolution in the availability of potent, selective, and safe small molecule drugs, the pharmaceutical industry, where more than 90 percent of drugs have historically been discovered, is struggling for survival. While industry investment in research and development has grown exponentially, approval of new medicines has stagnated. Pricing pressures and litigation have further eroded profitability. These conditions have resulted in frequent mergers, reorganizations, and reductions in scientific staff across the industry. Given the rate of organizational change in the industry, it is increasingly difficult for a research project or strategy to bear fruit before it is abandoned. As a result, there is a growing trend for larger pharmaceutical companies to outsource and externalize the early phases of drug discovery via either active partnerships or opportunistic in-licensing of novel compounds.
In this context, there is a clear societal need for enhanced innovation and productivity in drug discovery in order for advances in biomedical research to result in new medicines. Bringing a variety of scientific approaches and sponsors to the early stages of drug discovery will result in greater technological innovation, exploration of higher risk targets, and more balance between the dominant pharmaceutical focus on the major diseases of affluent societies and unmet needs in less prevalent diseases and the diseases of the developing world. Exclusive reliance on large pharmaceutical companies for drug discovery will not achieve either the innovation or the balanced perspective that a broader-based effort can contribute. Academia is a critical area where relatively small additional investments can enable the translational research that will contribute directly to meeting this challenge.
See “Why Academic Drug Discovery Makes Sense” in Science Magazine, and visit the UNC Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery.