By Dr Y. Douglas Dolginow The art and science of prediction is a risky and humiliating exercise. As bad as we are at it, predicting things remains one of the fundamental human instincts, undoubtedly linked to a Darwinian selective advantage for our species. So no matter that the umbrella was… Read More
Nanotechnology approaches to solving the problems of poorly water-soluble drugs By Dr Roghieh Saffie-Siebert, Dr Jill Ogden and Dr Mark Parry-Billings Traditionally, almost half of new molecular entities identified by pharmaceutical industry screening programmes have failed to be developed because of poor water-solubility, which makes their formulation difficult or even… Read More
Ontologies - Semantic networks of pharmaceutical knowledge By Dr Stephen P. Gardner In the current climate making information more transparent to internal R&D staff and to external audiences such as regulators and consumers is crucial to business effectiveness. A new generation of semantic technologies capable of generating a consistent view… Read More
How a new compliance agenda is changing the face of the drug discovery industry By Dr Doug Dean and Frances Bruttin Safe and effective drug products for the 21st century can be developed if, and only if, firms understand the mechanism of action of their products, and they are able… Read More
The search for validated biomarkers in the face of biosystems complexity By Professor Ian Humphery-Smith and Will Dracup As the pharmaceutical industry is all too well aware, the genomics and postgenomic sciences have delivered an excessive number of drug targets few of which have been well validated. Indeed, apart from… Read More
The Impact of RNAi on Drug Discovery By Dr Christopher P. Miller RNAi (RNA interference) is an important target validation tool that has risen to prominence since 2001. For a number of reasons, it has supplanted other pre-existing target validation tools and is now the method of choice for target… Read More
Overview of biomarkers in disease, drug discovery and development By Professor Stephen Naylor The pharmaceutical industry and the healthcare sector are both confronted with expensive technological innovation, escalating costs and pointed questions about productivity and efficiency. The parallels between the problems of producing new therapeutic agents and treating patients afflicted… Read More
Patent Pools as a Solution to the licensing problems of diagnostic genetics - United States and European perspectives By Dr Jorge A. Goldstein, Dr Ted J. Ebersole, Marvin C. Guthrie, Annette A. Hirschfeld and Bart J. van den Broek Advances in diagnostic genetic testing have resulted in the ability to… Read More
COX-2 Inhibitor Toxicity - Warning shot over pharma's bow By Dr Mark Schena and Dr William Greene Human beings are complex gene machines that rely on the intricate interplay of ~25,000 genes to impart biological function. Genomic function is affected by genetic variability and environmental factors, giving rise to considerable… Read More
Experimental Medicine - Developing biomarkers in early discovery to bridge preclinical and clinical development By Dr Robert Dix In today's pharmaceutical research and development environment a major problem is the transition of too many drugs to later stages of development with insufficient and/or inadequate information (eg efficacy, dosing), resulting in… Read More
By Dr Ashok R Dongre, Dr Douglas Robinson, Dr Mark E Curran and Dr Nicholas C Dracopoli Molecular profiling is becoming increasingly important as a tool for the discovery and implementation of novel biomarkers for use in drug development. Modern profiling methods permit comprehensive analysis of biological systems that allow,… Read More
GENE EXPRESSION as a toxicological screening tool By Dr Bruce Seligmann The use of microarray data in drug development and requirements for FDA audit and approval. Toxicological safety testing of compounds has not yet advanced to the point where measurement of gene expression is being incorporated in the internal decision… Read More
Tissue Microarray (TMA) - A step ahead in drug discovery By Dr CR Camozzi Estimation of the clinical importance, market size and therapy-related side-effects are key questions in drug development. The ever-rising costs of drug discovery and development ($800-1,500 million for a successful drug research project) together with demonstrated uncertainty… Read More
The Case for Multiplex Protein Assays By Dr Robert Huang and Dr Diem Nguyen Multiplex testing has gained a growing popularity among scientists, mainly due to financial and competitive pressures forcing companies to narrow their targets and validate their leads as quickly as possible. We discuss how multiplex assays can… Read More
Metabonomics - A generic platform for the investigation of drug toxicity, altered gene function and disease processes By Professor Jeremy K. Nicholson Metabonomics can offer one of the most complete solutions to tackling one of the pharmaceutical industry's biggest problems attrition. This article discusses the scope and uses of metabonomics… Read More
By Dr Peter C. Johnson and Dr Alan J. Higgins The pharmaceutical industry has not seen the hoped-for productivity gains from the various omics datastreams over the last decade. This article discusses how systems biology can exploit the natural interlinkages between these datastreams and put in place a powerful system… Read More
