Pharmaceutical companies

Pharmaceutical companies are all into one thing- drugs discover and drug development.

Drug discovery, in most cases is done by first of all understanding the metabolic pathways that are related to diseases, then manipulating these pathways by using molecular biology or biochemistry.

The drug development is a process being held after a certain compound was identified as a potential drug, and then steps are taken to establish it as a medication.

There are 3 major things that must be held during this process: appropriate formulation, appropriate dosing and establishing safety measurements. The latter steps require huge capital investments that usually available only to large pharmaceutical companies.

Collaborations are very popular in the pharmaceutical world. Since large investments are a great deal of the pie, many pharmaceutical entities collaborate together in order to achieve the final destination, for example,

Small organizations that pocus on certain aspects like drug formulations.
Research organizations that collaborate with large pharmaceutical companies
Multinational corporations that team up together to maximize their marketing and sales efforts while trying to penetrate targeted markets.

The process of developing and marketing drugs is indeed a very long and expensive one that requires massive pre clinical testing’s and safety monitoring, therefore only a small fraction of the drugs that are developed are eventually approved on more formal levels (for instance, each year only 25 new chemical entities are approved for marketing!).

Even though, it is easier and cheaper to develop new drugs that are based on existing approved drugs or ones that are re formulated from an existing active ingredient.