Reverse pharmacology “A new outlook in the drug development process”

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry has historically seen an Incredible growth primarily due to the discovery of blockbuster drugs with the potential to generate over 1 billion US $ sales , however recent trends indicate that this model may no longer lead to high growth rates . The industry is really facing a major challenge to sustain and grow. Drug discovery and development process involves a 10- 15 years of investigation period and investments between US $1 billion and $ 1.5 billion. This resulted in “Target Rich Lead Poor” performance. The world health organisation’s commission on Intellectual property and Innovation in public health has also duly recognised the promise and role of traditional medicine in drug development for affordable health solutions .In this scenario Reverse pharmacology plays a vital role and  can be defined as the integrating science of developing candidate drugs from a clinical to experiential  hits and leads by transdisciplinary exploratory studies to understand the mechanisms of action at different pathological stages of biological organism . Then, confirm candidate drugs from experimental to clinical use on the basis of safety, efficacy and acceptability on relevant science potentiating fast track drug discovery and development of safer and effective drugs. India being a pluralistic health care system offers immense opportunities for natural product drug discovery and development based on traditional knowledge and clinical observations.