In an effort to streamline drug development while saving time and costs, major pharmaceutical companies have joined and invested in the international Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), which in return provides drugmakers with open access to three-dimensional protein structures the initial building block of drug discovery.
There are multiple stages involved in every potential drug s life-cycle, two of which may be amenable to this concept. explains ACSH's Dr. Josh Bloom. One stage consists of X-ray crystallography, which is used to determine a protein s structure; however, the process can be extremely time-consuming, and it s inefficient to have different companies end up doing the same research on the same protein. "Therefore, Dr. Bloom says, I think it makes perfect sense for drug developers to share this information, especially since these protein structures end up getting published in a national database later anyway.
Gaining momentum now is another new patent-free drug development project founded by Dr. Stephen Friend. Called Arch2POCM, the new endeavor pushes the envelope on industry drug development sharing by promoting open-access right up to the phase II clinical trial stage. The harsh reality is that R&D spending fell for the first time in decades in 2010, which was spurred by disappointing returns on drug research. Thus, Dr. Friend argues that Arch2POCM serves two beneficial purposes to combat this dismal trend: First, it allows drug makers to purchase exclusive rights to data generated from unpatented drugs, and second, companies can use the research as a springboard for their own proprietary molecules.
Dr. Bloom agrees that the idea, in theory, is a great one. Sucess in phase II clinical trials is considered proof of concept, and it s a big milestone along the clinical pathway. He adds, Theoretically, at that point, different companies could use that information to focus on their own molecules, knowing that they picked the right biological target. Though this would be extremely helpful, I don t see it happening: Unfortunately, the logistics, economics, and difficulty assessing the results would make this a very complex process.
