Innovation:Layout 1 14/1/10 19:56 Page 27
Drug Discovery
INNOVATION
in drug discovery technology
Technology has been a major driver of advances in drug discovery. Automation,
nanofluidics, imaging, software and assay technologies have played a major role
in getting better data, faster. Is drug discovery at such an advanced state that
further improvements are no longer needed or cost-effective? There are
different opinions on this and much of the evidence is anecdotal, but
technology innovation is critical to the improvement of the drug discovery
process and worth discussing.
O
ver the course of a year I attend 4 or 5 The drug discovery process covers a broad range
By Dr Al Kolb
drug discovery conferences in the US and of disciplines from genomics and target discovery
Europe. This gives me a good opportuni- to pre-clinical testing. Within this space there are
ty to visit exhibits, attend presentations and read a variety of hardware, software and biological
posters. However, the best part of these meetings is technologies. However, to keep this article to a
the chance to discuss drug discovery with col- manageable size, it will focus on developments
leagues. The usual conversation at these meetings primarily in assays and hardware used in target
is: “See anything new?” And the response is most validation through screening and into profiling.
often: “No, nothing.” In 2009 the conversation This does not diminish the many important
often led to the state of innovation in drug discov- advances that have been made with RNAi, cell-
ery technology. I was surprised over the universal based assays (especially the progress with stem
response that it had declined significantly. The cell), new biological approaches to target evalua-
comments were often much stronger than that, but tion, data mining, image recognition software or
the point was clear. It didn’t matter if the conver- other innovations.
sation was with senior executives, bench scientists
or technology developers involved in product What is innovation?
R&D; they all believe that innovation has declined. Innovation does not have a clear definition. This
This decline is not a recent phenomenon, but has can lead to disagreement as to what is innovative.
been growing since the economic downturn of A certain amount of leeway is required. Common
2002 – a good part of a decade. usage and dictionary definitions can range from
This is not an in-depth review of all that has definitions that are very loose as often used in a
occurred in drug discovery over the past 10 years. marketing context to very strict interpretations
It is a personal view developed by first-hand expe- that would eliminate all but the most unique inven-
rience and discussions with scientists in industry tions. Probably the best definition to use is that an
and academia. innovation must be at least a substantial improve-
ment and not a small change over what is current-
Scope of drug discovery technologies ly available. That still leaves room for a consider-
Before discussing innovation, the scope of drug able difference of opinion so we should be flexible
discovery covered by this paper should be defined. in what is considered innovation.
Drug Discovery World Winter 2009/10 27
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