Whole organism based techniques and approaches in early stage oncology drug discovery-patents and trends.

Whole organism based techniques and approaches in early stage oncology drug discovery-patents and trends. Recent Pat Endocr Metab Immune Drug Discov. 2011 Sep;5(3):183-91 Authors: Hampson RJ, Wyatt MD Abstract Discovery of new cancer drugs is important for the improvement of disease treatment and management. In addition to the clear medical needs there are also economic considerations: Much drug discovery is performed in the private sector. The high cost of some drug treatments, which can run to tens of thousands of US$ per patient for single courses of therapy has led to the perception of high profitability in the industry. But drug discovery and development is a very expensive and lengthy process, with an ongoing trend of fewer drugs brought to market per dollar invested in R&D Biochemical-based in vitro screens for hosts of targets have produced early stage drug candidates and led to drugs reaching the market, but there remains a great need to evaluate in vivo efficacy, toxicity and potential off-target effects as early as possible in the discovery process. Using whole organisms much earlier in cancer (and other) drug discovery is a potential approach to improve R&D productivity. Here, we provide an overview of recent patenting activity and take a brief look at possible new developments in the field. PMID: 21913888 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Recent Patents on Endocrine, Metabolic and Immune Drug Discovery - Category: Endocrinology Tags: Recent Pat Endocr Metab Immune Drug Discov Source Type: research