The Impact of Technological Innovation on Drug Development
Yoshikazu Morishita (Senior Researcher, Pharmaceuticals and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
Yutaka Kawakami (Senior Researcher, Pharmaceuticals and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
(No.27: Published June 2005)
The role of the R&D department of a pharmaceutical company is to find the seed of a drug, develop it into a new drug, obtain approval, and bring it to market. Many of the new drugs created to date have been created through the contributions of life science developments and the various technological innovations that have accompanied them. In the future, it is expected that novel technologies such as bioinformatics, proteomics, and genomics will be utilized to design drugs that target molecules, conduct genetic analysis, and perform high-speed mass analysis of proteins, leading to the development of new types of new drugs.
In drug discovery research and development, it is believed that new drugs will be created by investing in technological innovation (innovation) and introducing and applying advanced and innovative technologies. However, while investment in innovation continues to grow, the number of new drugs has been declining, and it appears that innovation does not necessarily lead to the creation of new drugs.
In this research report, we interviewed individual pharmaceutical companies about their attitudes and views on R&D, and investigated how they perceive innovation in their exploratory and clinical research divisions in their daily activities, and what kind of innovations they are working on for the creation of new drugs. We also discussed what kind of initiatives pharmaceutical companies need to consider in the future in order to link innovation to the creation of new drugs.