Wow! eBook
Pharmaceutical Innovation and Public Policy: The Case for a New Strategy for Drug Discovery and Development
Author(s): R. L. Juliano (Author)
- Publication Date: 28 Jan. 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 43 pages
- ISBN-10: B00B79ULRK
- ISBN-13: 9780985083625
Book Description
The major research-intensive pharmaceutical companies, often termed ‘big pharma’, are in the throes of a profound crisis. While their research and development (R&D) expenditures have grown at a staggering rate, the creation of drugs that represent truly important advances in therapy, the so called new molecular entities (NMEs), has been essentially stagnant. Here I provide a comprehensive analysis of the NME crisis and discuss possible solutions. This includes examination of proposals to fix the problem from within by improving the efficiency of corporate R&D, as well as several alternative strategies for pharmaceutical R&D, including newly emerging academic drug discovery centers, and the public-private partnerships that have been quite successful in developing drugs for neglected diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Finally I propose a new policy initiative, the creation of Non-Profit Drug Development Corporations (NPDDCs) designed to bring key aspects of drug development into the pre-competitive public arena. This strategy would provide several important advantages including: (i) the reduction of duplicative drug research programs conducted behind the closed doors of corporate laboratories; (ii) increased efficiency through sharing of R&D information; (iii) increased emphasis on developing drugs that truly address unmet medical needs rather than ones primarily intended to maximize profits for big pharma. No doubt the creation of effective NPDDCs will be a challenging undertaking, but it promises to provide the health care system with less costly and more effective medicines.
