Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Pharma Goal: "Expand the Druggable Universe"

Okay, I admit this is an unfair post. I am clearly quoting out of context, in order to create an effect.

In Boston early this month was held the Drug Discovery and Development of Innovative Therapeutics conference. Senior executives from the big firms showed up to tip their hands on their future research agendas.

Dr. Melvyn Turner, senior VP of external research at Merck, indicated that one of his company's prime goals was the oncology drug sector, particularly the new area of RNA interference compounds. He said Merck found this area attractive because of the technology's ability to "expand the druggable universe."

I am sure that Dr. Turner meant nothing sinister by this phraseology. Nevertheless, for paranoids like me, it does seem to capture rather nicely what seems to be the overall agenda of Big Pharma.

The old joke had it that what kept the puritan awake nights was the abiding fear that somewhere, somebody was having fun. I assume by the same logic, what keeps pharma execs awake at night is the abiding fear that somewhere in the world, somebody is not taking drugs.

Breaking news on drug discovery.
http://www.drugresearcher.com/news/printNewsBis.asp?id=79011

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