title: Whole organism based techniques and approaches in early stage oncology drug discovery-patents and trends.
abstract: Discovery of new cancer drugs is important for the improvement of disease treatment and management. In addition to the clear medical needs there are also economic considerations: Much drug discovery is performed in the private sector. The high cost of some drug treatments, which can run to tens of thousands of US$ per patient for single courses of therapy has led to the perception of high profitability in the industry. But drug discovery and development is a very expensive and lengthy process, with an ongoing trend of fewer drugs brought to market per dollar invested in R&D Biochemical-based in vitro screens for hosts of targets have produced early stage drug candidates and led to drugs reaching the market, but there remains a great need to evaluate in vivo efficacy, toxicity and potential off-target effects as early as possible in the discovery process. Using whole organisms much earlier in cancer (and other) drug discovery is a potential approach to improve R&D productivity. Here, we provide an overview of recent patenting activity and take a brief look at possible new developments in the field.
authors.affiliation: Thelial Technologies S.A., Lisbon, Portugal. rhampson@thelial.com
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hampson
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Wyatt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000187:drug effects; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000187:drug effects; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000187:drug effects; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D010330:Patents as Topic; D015027:Zebrafish
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents