Neuroscientist Juan Carlos López, currently a specialist in scientific publishing, tells us his vision of the areas to be taken into account in the process of discovering new drugs.
Juan Carlos López, founder of Haystack Science, has extensive experience in the new drug discovery and scientific commercialization sector. On this occasion, Juan Carlos gives us his vision on the discovery and subsequent trial phase of drugs, especially those aimed at the human brain, and the most relevant aspects in the pharmaceutical field.
The first point highlighted by Juan Carlos in his lecture at the Future Trends Forum on Neuroscience is the problem faced by pharmaceutical companies regarding the cost of their products: each disease is really a collection of different diseases. For example, we call schizophrenia schizophrenia, but if we look at 100 patients with this disease we will see that they have different symptoms. As the concept of personalized care takes shape, the pool of patients for whom we develop therapy is getting smaller and smaller. Juan Carlos poses the following question: At what point does the development of a therapy for a very limited group of patients cease to be economical? This point increases the cost of developing a new drug, since the smaller the group of patients who are going to consume a drug, the more expensive it will be.
The second question focuses on the therapeutic modality of the drug. If we talk about developing a small molecule, the cost may not be so high. But if we think rather about developing an antibody, for example, or gene or cell-based therapies, we face many limitations, which determine the cost of these.
The third aspect to take into account, according to Juan Carlos, is related to current regulations, and how to launch new drugs on the market. The main question to ask is: what are you going to promise about your medication? It is not the same to launch it as “the cure for Alzheimer’s” or “it does not cure Alzheimer’s, but it improves its symptoms”, and depending on the slogan used, the regulatory process will change drastically, and consequently the development costs and the final price of the product.
Finally, Juan Carlos highlights the relationship between the cost of a drug or therapy and who has access to it: if a drug or technology is too expensive, a very small group of society will probably have access to it, and vice versa.
Juan Carlos closes his contribution by asking a question: If there is a new technology with a low cost and accessible to everyone, could your boss make you use it to increase your productivity, would he make you take something for cognitive optimization? If it’s too safe and cheap, could your boss force you to use it?
Below, you can see Juan Carlos Lopez’s lecture where he develops the most important points in the development of new drugs:
If you want to know more about the brain, click here to see other lectures by our Neuroscience experts.
Fundador en Haystack Science
