omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

8:30 am Tuesday, February 3 Opening Plenary Session Room A2
Jürgen Drews
Nigeons GmbH
Firnhaberstrasse 14
Feldafing, D-82340 Germany
drews@nigeons.com
Changing Patterns in the Discovery of New Drugs
The promise of genomics in drug discovery, which was so eagerly embraced in the mid-1990s, has not yet been
fulfilled. There are two main reasons for this initial failure: The first one has to do with the fact that the structures
and functions of gene products, which were included in screening programs, were poorly understood. Secondly,
the combinatorial libraries, to which these “targets” were exposed were lacking in quality. As a result of these
shortcomings, the overall productivity of the drug industry has declined further. However, this statement needs
differentiation because the weights within the drug industry have shifted. The first tier biotech companies have
now become the most productive segment of the drug industry. They often combine a high degree of innovative
spirit with solid pharmaceutical professionalism. Some smaller biotech firms have succeeded in addressing
unmet medical needs in technologically appealing ways. Many well positioned larger biotech companies with rich
development portfolios suffer from development times that are longer than expected, costs that are higher than
expected and from failures in clinical trials that were not expected at all. The classical pharmaceutical industry
continues on its path to further consolidation with a clear emphasis on marketing and sales. By and large, the
big pharmaceutical companies take a cautious attitude towards novel science and technology. A convincing
balance between the need for good-looking bottom lines and a compelling long-term vision has not emerged. In
their totality these changes have deeply altered the nature and the appearance of the drug industry. In the mid-
to long-term, however, science and technology offer great opportunities to overcome this stagnation. Biology,
especially biological approaches that are directed at the functioning of systems rather than on single molecular
entities will eventually solve the problem of identification and validation of suitable drug targets. The continued
study of drug protein interactions at the molecular level is built on biological premises but is chemical in nature.
We begin to understand that the majority of pharmaceutically relevant drug targets cluster into densely populated
target families, thus offering a novel chemical approach. This new strategy uses a privileged structure concept
whereby molecular master keys are developed that take into account target family wide structural and functional
commonalities. Lead compounds can be generated that address a variety of targets from a particular gene family
that may reach across the boundaries of therapeutic areas. Optimizing a master key for a distinct target family,
therefore, is about to become a new chemical strategy, which will replace strategies of the recent past which
were built on large numbers of compounds that were not chosen on the basis of a postulated or demonstrated
relationship of target and ligand. In concert, these new approaches may well improve the productivity of drug
research and again alter the landscape of the respective industry.
9:15 am Tuesday, February 3 Opening Plenary Session Room A2
John D. Rhodes
Deloitte & Touche
Two Hilton Court
P.O. Box 319
Parsippany, New Jersey 07054-0319
jorhodes@deloitte.com
Financial Forces Shaping the Future of the Pharmaceuticals and Biotech Industry
Deloitte’s National Managing Partner, Life Sciences, will provide a view of the current life sciences landscape and
discuss key trends and issues impacting the industry. Key industry metrics will be reviewed including global sales
trends, FDA approval rates, level of R&D expenditures and investment trends in forming alliances and partnerships.
The discussion will also highlight challenges impacting future growth rates including the state of regulatory
challenges, innovation and development efforts as well as protection of intellectual property.
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PODIUM ABSTRACTS