Pharmaceutical industry research
Pharmaceutical industry research is a key growth driver in the global pharmaceutical industry. Traditionally, the growth of the pharmaceutical companies has been driven by new drugs. In recent years, falling research productivity has forced pharmaceutical companies to bolster research pipelines through mergers, acquisitions and collaborations. Most of such deals are much too recent to be of any use in judging the effectiveness of this strategy, but there is little doubt that pharmaceutical companies have to tackle falling research productivity through organic strategies or other alternative means. The cost of research has increased while drug development times have lengthened. There is also no guarantee that the approved drugs will recover their costs. With a number of blockbuster drugs losing patent protection in the next few years, pharmaceutical companies are keen to find new drugs.
Now various strategies are being employed to improve the effectiveness of pharmaceutical industry research. Most pharmaceutical companies have started ruthlessly discontinuing research projects that do not meet their expectations regarding safety, effectiveness or cost. According to Tufts Centre for the Study of Drug Development, pharmaceutical companies are using tools such as bioessays, bioinformatics, validated surrogate endpoints and biomarkers to cut research costs and make drug development more predictable.
Information technology is indeed playing an important role in pharmaceutical industry research. Increasing number of pharmaceutical companies are now using new computer modelling tools such as molecular dynamics, ligand docking, pharmacophore modelling, homology modelling and enzyme-substrate modelling to speed up research. The pace of pharmaceutical industry research is also likely to improve due to genomics and proteomics.
A large number of pharmaceutical companies are also using the best-in-class approach. While speed remains important, pharmaceutical companies are realising that best-in-class drugs enjoy better prospects. Pharmaceutical industry research has shown that first-in-class drugs do not necessarily become leaders in their therapeutic category. Often the drugs that follow first-in-class drugs offer better therapeutic benefits. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies are focusing on improving therapeutic benefits instead merely trying to be the first in the market.
Pharmaceutical industry research is also being linked closely with regulators such as US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) in order to raise research productivity. Pharmaceutical companies are consulting regulators more frequently during clinical studies with a view to develop focused data for review.
Biotechnology has been driving advances in pharmaceutical industry research in recent years. As many as 50 biotech drugs are likely to be approved by FDA in the near future. The alliances between pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies have increased sharply in recent years and will continue to accelerate.
The demographic shifts and lifestyle changes are also influencing pharmaceutical industry research. The aging of population is encouraging pharmaceutical companies to focus research spending on diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In addition, life style changes are encouraging pharmaceutical companies to focus research on diseases such as obesity and central nervous system disorders.
Pharmaceutical companies are also doing a better job of explaining pharmaceutical industry research to consumers and health care providers. Most consumers, unaware of research economics, believe that pharmaceutical companies inflate the prices of their drugs. Pharmacy benefit managers are also demanding data to make formulary decisions. Clearly, pharmaceutical industry research has undergone a sea change in the past few years and will continue to evolve in the coming years.