PHARMACEUTICAL INNOVATION BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ECONOMIC-CONSTRAINTS

New drugs are only developed when sales expectations appear to match t he rising expenditures for development. The repertoire of diseases tha t are seriously addressed by large pharmaceutical companies is shrinki ng, Genomics offers the promise of inventing and developing more selec tive therapies for a large number of diseases, but such increases in s electivity almost inevitably lead to therapeutics aimed at smaller pat ient populations. Scientific opportunity on the one hand and economic constraints on the other are forcing pharmaceutical R&D in different d irections. This study tries to quantify the problem and to identify me chanisms through which the apparent conflict may be resolved.