Drug discovery

Until 1981, pharmaceutical industry was dominated by the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Merck -- all of which were established in the mid-1800s. Things were about to change. Recombinant DNA was the hot technology of the early 1980s. Genentech had just gone public after cloning insulin a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pharmaceutical Executive 2006-08, Vol.26 (8), p.134
Main Author: Hrusovsky, Kevin
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Automation
Biotechnology industry
Collaboration
Forecasts and trends
Genetic engineering
Innovations
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Pharmaceutical industry
Productivity
R&D
Research & development
Technological change
Technology application
Trends
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Summary:Until 1981, pharmaceutical industry was dominated by the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Merck -- all of which were established in the mid-1800s. Things were about to change. Recombinant DNA was the hot technology of the early 1980s. Genentech had just gone public after cloning insulin and then human growth hormone. In 1982, the world saw the launch of the first recombinant DNA drug -- human insulin, which Genentech had licensed to Lilly. On the other side of the block, the advent of combinatorial chemistry and automation allowed for an entirely different approach to drug discovery: high throughput screening. The industry looks quite different in the year 2006. The line between pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies grows fuzzier as these companies combine efforts via mergers and cross-licensing, and reach into the same toolbox, increasingly often, in search of better therapeutics.
ISSN:0279-6570
2150-735X