2. drug discovery
3. the classic known targets
5. Strategic trends in the
drug industry
cology text are based on no more than 500 molecular drug
targets. These targets are presented here because they reveal
what have been the most fruitful paths for therapeutic develop-
ment in the past, and give a glimpse of where genomic sciences
may yield drug-discovery success in the future. The drug targets
are categorized according to the therapeutic areas corresponding
to the sections in Goodman & Gilman's "The Pharmacological
Basis of Therapeutics". The distribution of the targets is patchy and
reflects the opportunism that has been a feature of past pharma-
ceutical development. Drug targets that affect synaptic and neuro-
effector junction sites, as well as central nervous system drugs,
account for almost 30% of the total. Almost half of the drug targets
are divided more or less equally between drugs that address
inflammation, renal and cardiovascular function, infectious dis-
eases, or hormone agonists and antagonists. The rest (26%) are
targeted by drugs affecting blood diseases, gastrointestinal func-
tions, uterine motility, cancer, immunomodulation, and by vitamins
in the role of therapeutics. These targets are either constituents
of the human body (for pharmacodynamic therapy) or of exogenous
pathogenic agents such as viruses, microorganisms, or parasites
(in chemotherapy): We have categorized the molecular drug
targets into biochemical classes such as receptors, enzymes,
factors and hormones, ion channels, nuclear receptors, DNA, and
unknowns. Already today, it is evident that new therapies will be
directed at specific disease targets and mechanisms, which in turn
may be responsible for only a segment of a particular disease
phenotype.How that will be accommodated by drug discovery remains
to be seen. In any case, pharmaceuticalcompanies that are able to
integrate new technologies like the identification and characterization
of new targets through genomic sciences into drug discovery may
have a strong competitive advantage in the future.
The classic known targets
for commercial drugs
Nature biotechnology
1996