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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The global credit crunch is threatening the discovery and production of new, life-saving medicines, warns experts at a major international conference.
Before the global financial crisis, investors poured billions into research for new drugs, but now those investments are seen as risky.
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Professor David Wield, the director of the Economic and Social Research Councils Innogen Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland, says its becoming increasingly difficult for biotech companies for pay for everyday expenses. He worries biotech companies will no longer be able to fund long-term drug discovery research.
He said the economic meltdown is also affecting the development of medicines at large pharmaceutical companies.
There is seemingly no way to speed up and improve the drug discovery pipeline, and heavily increased R&D has not increased the number of new drugs, Wield was quoted as saying. As a result, big companies have been laying off staff and closing down research units, instead looking to biotechnology start-ups for new ideas.
Investors spent $50 billion worldwide to finance biotech companies last year; the first year those companies turned a profit.
SOURCE: Presented on October 27, 2008 at the annual conference of the Economic and Social Research Councils Genomics Network in London, England
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