Posted by pedr on August 30, 2019, at 13:14:29
In reply to Re: blockbusters gone forever » joe f, posted by linkadge on August 30, 2019, at 7:26:46
Joe you're right - the radical change that all big pharma is trying to make is disease subtyping. Let's say there are 12 subtypes of major depression and you make another "blockbuster" antidepressant. There's a very good chance that it's very effective (say 70%) for one of the subtypes and not much for the eleven others. Therefore when it comes to trial, a perfectly good drug fails and is tossed at the cost of (literally) $1 billion, when it could have really helped 1/12 of the patient population.
Hence if you can make drugs that target a subtype, and - critically - identify people with that subtype, you are laughing all the way to the bank, as well as helping sufferers.
That's where big pharma is going. Big pharma's like an oil tanker though - direction changes take a looooong time to happen. But it's coming.
Pete
FTR I work for a startup using AI to tackle Parkinson's Disease (PD), a disease where subtyping is a big deal because PD is so complex.
I love the smell of Abilify in the morning. The smell, you know that chemical smell. Smells like victory. Some day this war's gonna end...
====
Atypical Depression, OCD, IBS-C, GERD since '96
poster:pedr
thread:1105962
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20190728/msgs/1105968.html