From owner-btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Wed Jan 16 00:16:00 2002 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id B0B7617B62 for ; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 00:15:58 +0000 (GMT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0E0E317B60 for ; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 00:15:56 +0000 (GMT) Received: from niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (niobium [193.62.192.41]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E96517B47 for ; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 00:15:55 +0000 (GMT) Received: (from news@localhost) by niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (8.9.3+Sun/8.8.8) id AAA00022 for btk-mca-list@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 00:09:48 GMT X-Authentication-Warning: niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk: news set sender to using -f From: dfell@brookes.ac.uk (David Fell) X-Newsgroups: bionet.metabolic-reg Subject: Re: Realism in drug discovery Date: 16 Jan 2002 00:09:44 -0000 Organization: BIOSCI/MRC Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre Lines: 35 Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20020115235050.01b349b0@csmail.brookes.ac.uk> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Complaints-To: news@net.bio.net X-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6F37317B60 for ; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 00:09:42 +0000 (GMT) X-Received: from mail2.svr.pol.co.uk (mail2.svr.pol.co.uk [195.92.193.210]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7D0B817B62 for ; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 00:09:41 +0000 (GMT) X-Received: from modem-1562.porcupine.dialup.pol.co.uk ([217.134.198.26] helo=David1.brookes.ac.uk) by mail2.svr.pol.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.13 #0) id 16Qde8-0007vn-00 for btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 00:09:40 +0000 X-Sender: p0054633@csmail.brookes.ac.uk X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 X-To: btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk X-In-Reply-To: To: btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Sender: owner-btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk At 14:12 09/01/2002 +0000, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote: >There is an interesting article by David Horrobin in Nature Biotechnology >19, 1099-1020 (December 2001) with the title "Realism in drug >discovery---could Cassandra be right?" Athel is right; this is an interesting article that certainly reflects a small but growing view point in and around the pharmaceutical industry. I was at a meeting in December (Realizing Genomic Medicine) where David Horrobin gave the opening address very much along these lines, and he summed up at the end. I had a chance to talk to him at some length, and I think he is very much in sympathy with the need for more attention to be paid to systems level approaches rather than just genes and molecules. Actually, I would say that the failure of the research effort is startling, because it goes beyond the two issues that Athel has commented on previously - the limitations of structure-based design and the failure to think of the system-level impact of a drug. There is no compelling evidence that other recent tools - combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening - are yet leading to higher productivity. What is very impressive, on the other hand, is the rise in research costs per drug developed. David Fell =================================================== Prof David A Fell, School of Biological & Molecular Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK Tel: +44 (0)1865 483247 Fax: +44 (0)1865 484017 Mob: +44 (0)7786 515729 http://mudshark.brookes.ac.uk/ --- .