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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by joe f on August 29, 2019, at 22:54:00
lets face it the days of the blockbuster drugs ie;prozac ,zoloft ,zyprexa arelong but gone.....no more goodbye...we have to deal with what we have
Posted by linkadge on August 30, 2019, at 7:26:46
In reply to blockbusters gone forever, posted by joe f on August 29, 2019, at 22:54:00
Perhaps it's a case of the 'low hanging fruit' being picked already. I think the problem is that we don't really know how the current drugs work, and why they don't work for many people. We have many 'me too' drugs developed but they're not necessarily proving more effective.
I think there's real hope with gene therapy, but who knows how far that is off. Fairly large studies have been showing clusters of genes associated with a range of mood disorders. Even if they could 'correct' a few of the worst offenders, the burden of the disease might be dramatically reduced.
Linkadge
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.
Posted by SLS on September 1, 2019, at 22:00:26
In reply to Re: blockbusters gone forever » linkadge, posted by pedr on August 30, 2019, at 13:14:29
zuranolone
This is the end of the thread.
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