To investigate whether some strategies have been more successful than others in the discovery of new drugs, this article analyses the discovery strategies and the molecular mechanism of action for 259 new drugs that were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration between 1999 and 2008. Observations from this analysis — such as the fact that the contribution of phenotypic screening to the discovery of first-in-class small-molecule drugs exceeded that of target-based approaches in an era in which the major focus was on target-based approaches — could have important implications for efforts to increase the productivity of drug research and development.
- David C. Swinney
- Jason Anthony
