Gene Talk #1: business|bytes|genes|molecules

For the past year, I have featured blogs every Sunday that shared personal stories and opinions about various health topics, including ADD, bulimia and binge eating, and stuttering. Today, I’m introducing a new series called Gene Talk which will feature excerpts from blogs talking about genetics, genes, and/or DNA.

This week’s excerpt is from business|bytes|genes|molecules:

Just a few years ago, many were concerned about the lack of improvement in productivity that had been anticipated from genomics. I can think of a number of reason for the negativity. Unrealistically high expectations probably tops the list, but one also needs to be cognizant of the drug development lifecycle. Genomics as a field with value to pharma is only 6-7 years old and some of the better techniques have only come into vogue in the last few years. It takes a long time for a drug to reach the clinical, and I suspect that we are only beginning to see the benefit. While it would be unrealistic to think that genomics and proteomics are going to change the pharma industry overnight, in the next 5-10 years, the returns from genomics-based drug development will begin to bear fruit for all to see, and the next decade is going to see an explosion of genomics-based drug development, which will be essential for the kinds of targeted treatments that the pharma industry must adopt for sustainable success.

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