Even as the first drugs developed from genomic studies are registering on the market, with some blockbusters like denosumab and Benlysta likely to capture huge markets, there are still plenty of skeptics questioning why the biopharma industry has so little to show for all the genetics work that's been done in the 10 years since all the hoopla surrounding the first sequencing of the human genome.
"That "genome bubble" has long since popped," writes the respected New York Times biotech scribe Andrew Pollack. "And not only has there been no pharmacopeia, but some experts say the Human Genome Project might have at least temporarily bogged down the drug industry with information overload."
Drug developers offer some added insight. First, major drug development waves take 15 years to deliver a significant pipeline of new therapies. And in the meantime, genomics work is a key feature among all R&D groups. "It's become a very standard part of what we do," Peter S. Kim, the executive vice president in charge of research at Merck, tells Pollack.
"Can I point to a single drug right now that this has facilitated?" said Michele Cleary, Merck's senior director for automated biotechnology. "No, because we are in the early stages of this. There's information feeding into the early stages of the pipeline that we'll see the fruits of in years to come."
- here's the article from the New York Times