Adrian Hobden

A placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of the selective AB-42 lowering agent, flurizan (MPC-7869, (R)-flurbiprofen) in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease

O2-01-05 A PLACEBO-CONTROLLED, DOUBLE-BLIND TRIAL OF THE SELECTIVE A -42 LOWERING AGENT, FLURIZAN (MPC-7869, (R)FLURBIPROFEN) IN PATIENTS WITH MILD TO MODERATE ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Gordon K. Wilcock, Sandra Black, Judy Haworth, Mark Laughlin, Suzanne Hendrix, Mary-Helen Binger, Kenton Zavitz, Edward Swabb, Adrian Hobden; University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom; Sunnybrook & Women’s, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol, United Kingdom; Myriad Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Chapter 5 – Drug Targets, Target identification, Validation and Screening

Publisher Summary The pharmaceutical industry has been extremely successful in its search for new and improved medicines. For most new drugs, molecular biology technology will be used, directly or indirectly, at all stages in the drug discovery process. This chapter illustrates the various uses of modern molecular biological technologies in the various stages of the drug discovery process with an emphasis on drug target identification, validation, and screening. Some of these applications are well established, others are just now being applied, and still more applications will be conceived of and brought to fruition in the future. The essence of pharmaceutical research is innovative thought and competition. The increased target resolution and well-defined mechanism of action in drug development today not only offer the potential of more specific and more efficacious drugs, but also increase the chances of measuring efficacy in the clinic. The development of modern molecular biology has already had an enormous impact on the process of drug discovery and its influence will certainly increase in the future. The power of these new technologies such as RNAi will facilitate the discovery and development of novel pharmaceuticals and shorten the time and cost from idea to market.

8 – THE CONTRIBUTION OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY TO DRUG DISCOVERY

There are some 5000 known inherited disorders in man that lead to a wide range of diseases. In general, these diseases are so rare that a drug discovery program to treat these specific conditions cannot be commercially viable. Molecular biology has enormously expanded the ability to explore disease processes, to dissect the etiology of these diseases, to diagnose individual patients with unprecedented precision and, ultimately, to identify new molecular targets for drug discovery. The greatest impact of the molecular biology revolution is in the realm of drug target identification. With the completion of the sequencing of the human genome, as well as the genomes of numerous human pathogens and important biological model systems, the explosion of potential drug targets represents an unprecedented challenge and opportunity to the pharmaceutical industry. As with the process of DNA sequencing, a vast array of molecular biological techniques has been automated and industrialized to generate enormous amounts of data detailing. Furthermore, the power of molecular biology technologies will facilitate the discovery and development of novel pharmaceuticals, and shorten the time and cost from idea to market. The pharmaceutical industry is very competitive, and companies will prosper through a combination of hard work, innovation, and serendipity.