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Biomedical subjects

Esther F Schmid

Publications and source records attributed to Esther F Schmid.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

R&D technology investments: misguided and expensive or a better way to discover medicines?

The pharmaceutical industry is in crisis owing to spiralling costs and a lack of new product launches. It is said that expensive investments in technology have not paid off. But is this really true? In this review, we explore some of the recent medicines that were, or are being, brought to market, and we discuss how they were discovered and what difference new technologies have made during the discovery of these medicines.

Drug Industry↗
PubMed2006

Drug withdrawals and the lessons within.

Drug withdrawals over recent decades have triggered changes in the way that drug targets and screening programs are researched and designed. In the cases having the greatest impact, the reason for withdrawal was the reversible interaction of a drug or its metabolite with a single receptor, ion channel or enzyme (primary or secondary pharmacology). Once this interaction is identified, screens can be established and validated. When the mechanism is complex (eg, organ toxicity), however, such screens are difficult to implement and usually examine only the initial step, leading to considerable problems in extrapolation and risk definition. This review classifies drugs withdrawn from the US market over the last 25 years by their reasons for withdrawal, and examines how drug discovery programs have been modified in response to these events.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Keynote review: Is declining innovation in the pharmaceutical industry a myth?

Increasing the rate of innovation is a requirement to achieve much-needed advances in patient care, as well as to secure the future of the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, there is a perception in the external environment that pharmaceutical R&D is no longer innovative, fails to bring new drugs to market or, at best, produces a rising number of 'me-too' drugs with no advantage over existing treatments. In addition, the cost to discover and develop new medicines (i.e. cost per launch) has risen dramatically in recent years. The quoted development cost per medicine is a reality, and is not disputed here. However, data are provided that demonstrate that with regard to innovation rates, the current perception is wrong - although there have been, and continue to be, fluctuations in drug launches, there has been a steady increase in the number of new chemical entities launched, both in absolute numbers of FDA-approved medicines and in the proportion of priority reviews.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed2004

Is pharmaceutical R&D just a game of chance or can strategy make a difference?

The pharmaceutical industry is currently experiencing turbulent, yet exciting times. Despite widely expressed negative sentiments regarding productivity there are now signs that innovation could yet win the day and bring a fresh wave of breakthrough drugs. Nowhere is this truer than for oncology, which previously was dominated by cytotoxic drugs. Today, however, this field shows exciting progress with the emergence of kinase inhibitors, as well as various antibody-based mechanistic approaches. Similarly, new drug mechanisms have transformed HIV therapy. Are these chance events, or have they come about through strategy? Here, we argue that a complex interplay of chance and strategy is at work in pharmaceutical R&D, separated in time by 10 years or more.

Anti-HIV Agents↗
PubMed2002

Discovery, innovation and the cyclical nature of the pharmaceutical business.

Unlike many recent articles, which paint the future of the pharmaceutical industry in gloomy colours, this article provides an optimistic outlook. It explores the foundations on which the pharmaceutical industry has based its outstanding successes. Case studies of important drug classes underpin the arguments made and provide the basis for the authors' argument that recent technological breakthroughs and the unravelling of the human genome will provide a new wave of high quality targets (substrate) on which the industry can build. The article suggests that in a conducive environment that understands the benefits that pharmaceuticals provide to healthcare, those players who can base their innovation on a sufficient scale and from a large capital base will reshape the industry.

Drug Design↗