A Prescription for Change: The Looming Crisis in Drug Development

The introduction of new medicines has dramatically improved the quantityand quality of individual and public health while contributing trillions ofdollars to the global economy. In spite of these past successes—and indeedbecause of them—our ability to deliver new medicines may be quicklycoming to an end. Moving from the twentieth century to the present, APrescription for Change reveals how changing business strategies combinedwith scientific hubris have altered the way new medicines are discovered,with dire implications for both health and the economy. To explain how we have arrived at this pivotal moment, Michael S. Kinchrecounts the history of pharmaceutical and biotechnological advances in thetwentieth century, relating stories of the individuals and organizations thatushered in the modern era of translational medicine. He shows that an acceleratingcycle of acquisition and downsizing is cannibalizing the very infrastructurethat had fostered the introduction of innovative new medicines.As Kinch demonstrates, the dismantling of the pharmaceutical and biotechnologicalresearch and development enterprises could also provide opportunitiesto innovate new models that sustain and expand the introduction ofnewer and better breakthrough medicines in the years to come.