ABSTRACT
The challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry at the beginning of the current millennium are manifold. The economic realities of drug discovery and development are forcing both a reconsideration of R&D priorities and the implementation of innovative solutions to combat compound attrition.1 Despite a significant increase
in research and development spending (estimated at approaching threefold increase over the course of 1990 to 2000), the number of new drugs being approved for public use has remained relatively constant. Although heralded with much promise, the “genomics revolution” has not yet had a demonstrable impact on new drug survival during the costly development process; this too has remained fairly constant at an approximately 90% failure rate. Improving survivability of compounds in the development phase is therefore a clear goal of the industry. This will require technical and scientific innovation, certainly, but also possibly an even more aggressive application of genomics sciences (or “omics,” as they have become collectively known) to improve the quality of candidate molecules as early in the discovery phase as practical.
