How to improve the efficacy of existing drugs?

Abstract

Pharmaceutical drugs have greatly contributed to public health across the globe. Yet there are evidence that drugs may perform differently in everyday clinical practice than in clinical trials which is the basis for licensing and prescribing decisions. This gap between efficacy and effectiveness of a drug is attributed to several factors. But with extremely low number of new compounds entering into the market it is no surprise that industry is under pressure to improve efficacy and safety of the existing drugs, thereby making them more cost-effective. Therefore in order to improve the efficacy of old drugs, besides developing several innovative delivery systems, other novel strategies have been also experimented and adopted. These includes improving the bioavailability of the drug by increasing its solubility in aqueous phase, use of specific isomers of a particular drug and use of specific drug in combination with compounds such as radical quenchers, radiosensitizers, carbohydrates or other known drug. In addition for protein-based drugs the effectiveness has been enhanced by attaching it with specific polymer whereas computer modelling approach was formulated to enhance the effectiveness of antibodies-based drugs. In another approach to increase the effectiveness of the drug emphasis is being laid on to find out the genetic clues to explain why the drugs work better for some patients than others. This article shall be discussing these approaches and analysing their effectiveness in present context.