Capitalizing on Genomics (White Paper 060103)

While no one questions the revolutionary impact of genomics and proteomics on biological research, there are growing questions about how and when these advances in knowledge will positively impact pharmaceutical R&D productivity. That such an impact would be felt, and profoundly so, has been the basis on which the pharmaceutical industry rationalized its investment of billions of dollars and hundreds of millions of man-hours in the development of "-omic" technology and data. The reality, however, has been more complex. The cost to develop a new drug has continued to rise, while the number of new pharmaceuticals being approved has remained stagnant, giving rise to complex, intriguing and timely questions.

Have the expectations for genomics been too high, or have the investments been made poorly and in the wrong areas? What bottlenecks and unexpected hurdles have prevented genomics from generating greater value more rapidly? What steps need to be taken now to improve the outlook, and to more fully capitalize on genomics? And how can the pharmaceutical industry learn to avoid its traditional pattern of hype/disappointment/realism with regard to future innovative drug discovery technologies?