Increasing Productivity in Drug Discovery

Peter Goodfellow

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Research and Development

peter.n.goodfellow@gsk.com

The last 5 years have been very disappointing for both patients and the pharmaceutical industry. Despite record levels of investment in academic and industrial biomedical research and development, the number of new drugs being registered has reached a nadir. Many commentators have speculated that this sorry circumstance may be due to increasing regulatory oversight and increased failure due to the challenges of greater innovation. Whatever the cause, the pipeline of new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry has been depleted. In the short term, the options for reversing this trend are structural - mergers, acquisitions and in-licensing. In the long term, the only answer is the application of knowledge.

At GSK we have made three strategic investments in drug discovery for long term success: Genomics, genetics and automation. Genomics has relieved the target paucity that plagued the industry 10 years ago; genetics is a tool for choosing the right target and predicting patient response to therapeutic intervention; automation increases precision. Combining genomics, genetics and automation is enabling a systematic approach to tractable target classes.