TY - JOUR
T1 - Something's got to give
T2 - Psychiatric disease on the rise and novel drug development on the decline
AU - Chandler, Daniel J.
N1 - Funding Information:
These changes must be governmental, academic and industrial in origin. Legislation that reduces a pharmaceutical company's willingness to engage in excessively long and costly research only to maintain a short period of exclusivity, such as the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act, must be addressed by the US government if it wishes to stimulate reinvestment in this area by the private sector. The government must continue to support basic and applied disease research performed by academic laboratories by supporting initiatives such as the National Cooperative Drug Discovery and Development Groups Program, the Drug Discovery for Nervous System Disorders Program and the Innovative Pilot Studies Program recently introduced by NIMH. However, the private sector must also do its part by contributing to significant technological advancements, and engaging in this research to demonstrate to the government that progress can in fact be made in this disease area. For example, the privately funded Autism Speaks foundation actively supports raising autism awareness and supports basic and applied research. A shared responsibility in maintaining such initiatives will ultimately make the psychiatric drug development process more efficient and cost-effective, thus reducing the risk:reward ratio for such endeavors and stimulating reinvestment in this area by pharmaceutical companies. Most importantly, however, such changes will lead to novel, safer and more-effective treatments for psychiatric disease that will reduce the economic burden that mental disease imposes on society and the healthcare system and improve quality of life for its patient populations.
Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/2
Y1 - 2013/2
N2 - Research and development of drugs for psychiatric disease is currently in a state of decline. Despite the increasing prevalence and healthcare costs of psychiatric disease, the costly and unpredictable drug development process has led to decreased public and investor confidence in the abilities of companies to develop safe and efficacious drugs. Industrial research in this disease area is therefore being scaled back owing to various scientific, corporate, financial and legal factors. This review will consider how these factors contribute to the current status of psychiatric drug development and offer several avenues forward to spur reinvestment in this type of research. Such a shift is needed to reduce the burden psychiatric disease imposes on the healthcare system and its patient populations.
AB - Research and development of drugs for psychiatric disease is currently in a state of decline. Despite the increasing prevalence and healthcare costs of psychiatric disease, the costly and unpredictable drug development process has led to decreased public and investor confidence in the abilities of companies to develop safe and efficacious drugs. Industrial research in this disease area is therefore being scaled back owing to various scientific, corporate, financial and legal factors. This review will consider how these factors contribute to the current status of psychiatric drug development and offer several avenues forward to spur reinvestment in this type of research. Such a shift is needed to reduce the burden psychiatric disease imposes on the healthcare system and its patient populations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84873095820&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84873095820&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.drudis.2012.08.003
DO - 10.1016/j.drudis.2012.08.003
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22980124
AN - SCOPUS:84873095820
SN - 1359-6446
VL - 18
SP - 202
EP - 206
JO - Drug Discovery Today
JF - Drug Discovery Today
IS - 3-4
ER -