The end of drug discovery? by. Hana

 The end of drug discovery? 

by.Hana

 In the article “the end of drug discovery?” author Smitha Mundasad gives information to person who is engaged in pharmaceutical company. Specifically, author says that the current situation on industry of medicine is faced with hard crises and he informs what the future of industry of medicine is. First of all, a medicine which is invented in the old days discoveries that it is not working well than ever. Some pharmaceutical companies concern about their profitable medicine expires. Chas Bountra, who is professor at Oxford University, mentions that people do not exactly understand about human disease and about the condition of action of existing drugs. Then, it is hard to find molecule which is using to new drug. In addition to, there is more competition to publish results because most of companies study same molecule, carry on wasting resources and perform clinical trials to patient. There is increasing to develop a newest medicine with collaboration nowadays. Prof Workman convinces that there is need to collaborate in early stages of new medicine for diseases, however, the collaboration will turn into competition at later. in conclusion, he tells readers to recognize present situation.

This article very interesting to me because it is related my major in Korea. When I was freshman in University, a professor always said that Korea’s pharmaceutical companies are waiting for expiration of blockbuster medicine. The reason is only one. If original medicine is not expired, generic companies cannot manufacture a copy of original drug and sell it.  As soon as it is expired, Korea companies ready to publish generic drug. What is the generic drug? It is a copy of the original drug with the same dosage, safety and quality, but their price has less expensive. I convince that generic drug can open many more doors to patient treating their diseases than original drug. I agree that making copy drug is approved. I wonder whether Americans think positive about generic drug. United States and Korea cannot be treated as being the same because industry of medicine in United States is much bigger than Korea. It is really true that Pfizer annual sale more than including all of pharmaceutical company in Korea annual sale. Sadly, 2014 looks only a little brighter. What worries me most is the FTA between United States and Korea. My country is getting into a big trouble on industry of medicine. That does not have an effect on me immediately, but it will influence to me next year when I will find a good job.