Study: Productivity Crisis in Drug Discovery; CBCD Offers a New Technology
Rochester, NY (PRWEB) October 07, 2013 -- Investors are starting to punish big Pharma for their poor showing in R&D, according to a study published in March of 2012 on Nature.com (2). The number of new drugs approved per billion US dollars spent on R&D by the pharmaceutical industry fell by half roughly every 9 years since 1950 (2). As it turns out, investors are starting to respond to the academic recognition of the subject that started around 2005, according to D. Almog in a study published in the Medical Science Monitor in January 2005 (3).
Now, Merck Pharmaceuticals has announced a global initiative to reduce annual operating expenses with a goal of ‘sharpening commercial and R&D focus’ (1). The company’s plan “includes new workforce reductions of approximately 8,500 positions, in addition to pending, previously announced reductions (1).”
“It seems like Merck has given up on trying to bring more new drugs to the market per year. And, as an attempt to increase investors’ returns, they are cutting costs. The CBCD would like to suggest another option…don’t give up. Increase the number of new drugs by using ‘Computer Intuition’ in drug discovery.” – Greg Bennett, CBCD
What is ‘Computer Intuition’?
‘Computer Intuition’ is a psycholinguistic-based data-mining program that analyzes scientific text and helps scientists discover new therapeutic features of chemical entities.
In September 2013, the medical journal Pharmacology & Pharmacy, in a special edition on Advances in Antiviral Drugs, published a clinical study, which showed that the dietary supplement Gene-Eden-VIR is safe and effective. Gene-Eden-VIR was developed using ‘Computer Intuition.’ The results of this clinical study show that ‘Computer Intuition’ can predict clinical results.
“In 1996…a prototype of a psycholinguistic-based data-mining program that analyzes scientific text and assigns a rating to all ideas found in the text” was completed (4). “The higher the rating, the more (‘Computer Intuition’) hints at future events (4).”
“The following is a description of one prospective application of Computer Intuition. In 1995, Frederiksen published a paper entitled: Diagnostic Imaging in Dental Implantology. At the time, Frederiksen was one of the world leading experts on the subject. To test the pre-dictive power of the Computer Intuition analysis, Almog and Heisler from the University of Rochester devised a test. They conducted a Medline search for papers published between 1980 and 1996 using keywords relevant to the subject of diagnostics, imaging, and dental implantology. The search identified 34 papers. The content of these papers was analyzed with Computer Intuition. The analysis produced three ideas. Two ideas were identical to the main conclusions described in Frederik-sen’s paper. This, by itself, was an impressive achievement. By using Computer Intuition, Almog and Heisler duplicated the results of a world leading expert quickly and inexpensively. However, while it took Frederiksen decades to build his expertise, Almog and Heisler acquired similar expertise within weeks (4).”
The authors of the study went on to note that the third idea suggested by Computer Intuition was a new technology. “This technology was not mentioned in Frederiksen’s paper. The three ideas were published in 1997. How predictive was the Computer Intuition analysis? In 2006, Almog, Frederiksen, and four colleagues, published a survey of the academic and commercial field of diagnostic imaging in oral implantology. In their paper, they reported an interesting observation. Beginning in 2000, three years after the publication of the Computer Intuition paper, ‘numerous companies from technology-transfer and commercial standpoint have introduced technology platforms that offer planning and guidance systems to facilitate dental implant placement procedures’, the same technology proposed by the third idea three years earlier (4).”
The CBCD invites pharmaceutical executives to contact the Center to learn more about ‘Computer Intuition’ and how this forward thinking technology can help provide higher returns on investment, and be implemented as part of their R&D efforts.
We invite the media to contact us for interviews at: info (at)buy-gene-eden(dot)com or phone 585-250-9999.
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References:
(1) http://www.pharmalive.com/merc-to-cut-8500-jobs-to-sharpen-commercial-and-rd-focus
(2) http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v11/n3/full/nrd3681.html
(3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15614206
(4) http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=36101
The Center for the Biology of Chronic Disease (CBCD, http://www.cbcd.net) is a research center recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-for-profit organization. The mission of the CBCD is to advance the research on the biology of chronic diseases, and to accelerate the discovery of treatments.
The CBCD published the “Purple” book by Dr. Hanan Polansky. The book presents Dr. Polansky’s highly acclaimed scientific theory on the relationship between foreign DNA and the onset of chronic diseases. Dr. Polansky’s book is available as a free download from the CBCD website.
Hanan Polansky, Center for the Biology of Chronic Disease (CBCD), +1 (585) 250-9999, [email protected]
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