It is a great pleasure to invite you to the webcast of the Society for Medicines Research (SMR) symposium "Case Histories in Drug Discovery and Design 2001" which was held on Thursday, December 6, 2001.
Successful introduction of a new drug on to the market is not only an extremely costly and complicated process, but also fraught with a substantial risk of failure. The statistics for new introductions over the period 1990 to 2000 show a relatively constant number of between 30 and 50 per year, while the cost of pharmaceutical R&D has risen by almost 2.5fold, from $20 billion to $47 billion over the same period. What is not revealed by these figures is that the chance of success for a drug candidate passing through the various hurdles in pharmaceutical development is at best one in 10, and has barely changed despite advancing technology in other areas of R&D. While we expect high failure rates in drug discovery, it is of substantial concern that most candidates in development, on which large investments have already been made, are probably not going to make any return.
The Society for Medicines Research has run a meeting on case histories in drug discovery biannually for many years. The Society is dedicated to the multi-disciplinary study of drug R&D, and we are privileged today to hear the results of successful efforts to bring new and improved products into therapeutic use for diseases such as:
Cancer: as a lethal disease, this needs little introduction. Gleevec™ is the first drug based on protein kinase inhibition to be discovered for cancer, and is licensed specifically for a rare form of the disease, chronic myeloid leukaemia. Gleevec™ (imatinib mesylate), formerly known as STI571, has gone through a rapid development process and expedited review by the FDA in recognition of its importance. Type II diabetes: a major problem for developed world healthcare, currently affecting to 15 million people in the US alone, and which causes a substantially greater risk of stroke and heart disease to its sufferers. The SMR Award for Drug Discovery and Design has gone this year to AvandiaTM (rosiglitazone), which works by increasing sensitivity to insulin. Osteoporosis: this condition is responsible for more than 1.5 million bone fractures annually among 10 million individuals, approximately 80% of whom are women. Evista™ (raloxifene) is a modulator of the oestrogen receptor, the importance of which hormone is suggested by the high prevalence of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women. Up to half of women over age 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis in their lifetime.
Assuming the average figure of $600 million currently estimated as the cost of bringing a new drug on to the market, we can hear the result of over $3 billion of investment in today's presentations. The lessons of these success stories are of great interest to all in drug discovery, each story is individual and special. Today's pharmaceutical industry is in increasing need of better productivity, while facing new and greater challenges in the areas in which it operates. In fact there are substantial changes afoot, with corporate mergers in large pharma and at the same time greater reliance on small biotechnology and academic research. Increasingly global and mindful of the need to command a return on its R&D investment, the multinationals are at the same time beset by political challenges from governments concerned about drug prices - both in the West, and recently in the developing world too. Today we are also privileged to hear a talk from the well-known (and, in the best sense of the word, opinionated) pharmaceutical publisher of Scrip Magazine, Dr Philip Brown.
David Cavalla
Society for Medicines Research
http://www.socmr.org
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