Research on the introduction and establishment of next-generation drug discovery platform technology
Hideyuki Kagii (Senior Researcher, Pharmaceutical and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
(No.77: Published in May 2021)
In recent years, new drug discovery platform technologies such as nucleic acid medicine, gene therapy, gene-cell therapy, and cell therapy have been developed, and approaches to drug discovery have diversified. These technologies are referred to as "modalities," and the characteristics of nuclear technologies are used to select the appropriate drug discovery modality for the target disease.
Japan is one of the few countries in the world that create new drugs, and boasts one of the highest numbers of drug discoveries in the world. However, the main focus is on small molecule drugs, and the country lags behind Europe and the United States in the creation of biopharmaceuticals.
Therefore, in this study, in addition to analyzing the trends in the development pipeline and originator companies utilizing new modalities, we analyzed the role of the ecosystem in accelerating the process from innovation creation to commercialization. In particular, from the perspective of domestic pharmaceutical companies, we make recommendations for the establishment of next-generation drug discovery platform technologies.