I have
written about targeted
approach in drug development. Sure, it is a simulation
of the real drug discovery process efficiently used by Big Pharma to slow down
the progress in this field. But it looks
like somebody in this business try
to make a revolt? They try to dismiss the targeted approach! No way! For
sure Big
Pharma will control the process in some way. But let’s read what skeptics
are saying:
Two broad types of screens have
sequentially dominated early stage drug development over the last hundred years
or so—phenotypic screens and target-based screens. The former looks at the
effects, or phenotypes, that compounds induce in cells, tissues or whole
organisms, whereas the latter measures the effect of compounds on a purified
target protein via in vitro assays.
Phenotypic screens used to be the mainstay
of drug development. Such screens can potentially lead to the identification of
a molecule that modifies a disease phenotype by acting on a previously
undescribed target or by acting simultaneously on more than one target.
However, subsequently determining the relevant target or targets of molecules
identified by phenotypic screening has often proven slow or impossible.
Beginning in the 1980s, advances in
molecular biology and genomics led to phenotypic screens largely being replaced
by screens against defined targets implicated in disease.
Over the last decade, however, some drug
developers have questioned whether an over-reliance on genetic approaches to
validating targets for subsequent target-based drug discovery has resulted in
reduced success in discovering first-in-class medicines.
If phenotypic
screening will be taken by Big Pharma I am convinced that Big Pharma will
overcomplicate it in order to slow down.
No
other alternatives.
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