Diversification delivers: fuelling the growth in drug discovery technologies
Thomson Scientific
May 2007
This article was originally published in the Spring 2007 issue of European Pharmaceutical Contractor
Blockbuster drugs tend to grab headlines but, arguably, it is the technologies used to identify these high-revenue pharmaceuticals that are more important in the long term. From the perspective of classic medicinal chemistry, drug industry innovation might well seem to have reached a plateau, or even to be in decline. But that conclusion ignores the diversification that has occurred over the past decade, which has brought 'alien' disciplines, such as computing, into the drug discovery infrastructure.
During the 1970s, innovation in the pharmaceutical field averaged around 3.5 per cent of all innovation, as measured by the subject breakdown of patent specifications published across all technologies and all major countries. Steady growth since then has brought the current level to around seven per cent. It is interesting to consider what has caused this growth and what its effects have been on the industry.