INSIDE PHARMA

INSIDE PHARMA

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INSIDE PHARMA
INSIDE PHARMA
Why gene therapy flopped and DNA vaccines were hatched to fill the blockbuster gap

Why gene therapy flopped and DNA vaccines were hatched to fill the blockbuster gap

Big Pharma had run out of options

Hedley Rees's avatar
Hedley Rees
Oct 10, 2022
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INSIDE PHARMA
INSIDE PHARMA
Why gene therapy flopped and DNA vaccines were hatched to fill the blockbuster gap
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Find It, File It, Flog It has not been good for Big Pharma

Some of you may recall what I’ve dubbed the Find It, File It, Flog It business model that Big Pharma adopted in the early 1980s. This it is in mathematical terms:

F1 + F2 + F3 = $$$, where:

F1 = Drug discovery (Find it)

F2 = Regulatory approval (File it)

F3 = Sales & marketing (Flog it)

$$$ = Megabucks

…and this is the clever scientist during F1, finding it:

Clever scientist telling his boss he’s got a blockbuster

In reality of course, he doesn’t have a clue what he’s found—until it can be manufactured at the required scale, it doesn’t exist.

However, his boss is keen to hear good new to pass up the chain, so up it goes…and the miracle compound becomes one of the 250 compounds that must enter the development pipeline to get one approved for sale.

Having ‘found’ the compound, it moves into preclinical development. This is where it’s passed over to contract organisations, working to a fee-for-serve business model.

You may remember from pre…

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