Impact of Innovation on Pharmaceutical Research and Development
Yoshikazu Morishita and Yutaka Kawakami
No.27 : June 2005
The role of the research and development departments of pharmaceutical companies is to discover the candidates for novel drugs, develop them to obtain approval and provide them to the marketplace. Most of the novel drugs that have been produced to date are created by taking advantage of the advancement of life science and the technological innovations associated with it. In the future, new types of medicines are expected to be discovered through the identification of target molecules using new technologies such as genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, and the rational drug design based on the structure of the target molecules and are expected to be developed using new diagnostic technologies such as pharmacogenomics and biomarkers.
In pharmaceutical research and development, it is believed that novel drugs are developed through investment in "Innovation", which is the introduction and application of cutting-edge and innovative technologies. However, although investment in technological innovation continues to grow, the number of novel drugs has been decreasing every year, so it appears that innovation not always leads to the creation of novel drugs.
For this research report, we conducted interviews with directors in charge of research and development departments of pharmaceutical companies to collect their views and opinions, and to investigate what constitutes innovation in exploratory and clinical research and development, and what kinds of innovation they are pursuing that might lead to the creation of novel drugs. We also discussed what they believe pharmaceutical companies will have to do in the future in order to ensure that innovation leads to the creation of novel drugs.