BIOMARKERS EMERGE

摘要

Pharmaceutical companies have said it a thousand times: They want to reduce the time and cost of developing new drugs, improve their ability to predict success, and decrease the attrition rate among developmental candidates. But addressing the problem with new technology hasn't made much of a dent. Instead, the time and money they spend annually has increased over the past decade, while the number of new drugs has declined. Frustrated executives in pharmaceutical R&D want objective, measurable, and reliable indicators-or markers-of which drugs work and which ones don't. To find these answers, they are turning to small companies working on biomarker discovery Biomarkers include human genes and genetic variations, as well as gene, protein, and metabolite expression differences. In drug discovery, biomarkers can help elicit disease targets and pathways, and validate mechanisms of drug action. They may also be pharmacodynamic indicators of drug activity, response, and toxicity for use in clinical development.