Global Drug Discovery Technology Market Outlook

The global drug discovery technology market is expected to value USD 37.5 Billion in 2021 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 6.0% over the forecast period from 2021 to 2030, as per a market study by Quince Market Insights. In the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process of discovering new candidate medicines. In the past, drugs were discovered by looking for the active component in traditional treatments or by happenstance, as was the case with penicillin. Chemical libraries containing manufactured small molecules, natural products, or extracts are screened in intact cells or entire organisms in a procedure known as classical pharmacology to find compounds with a desired therapeutic effect. After the human genome is sequenced, it is allowed for quick cloning and synthesis of huge quantities of purified proteins. Later, reverse pharmacology became popular, which involves screening enormous chemical libraries against isolated biological targets that are thought to be disease-modifying.

Hits from these screens are then tested in cells and finally in animals to see if they are effective. Modern drug discovery technology includes the identification of screening hits, medicinal chemistry, and optimization of those hits to improve affinity, selectivity (to reduce the risk of side effects), efficacy/potency, metabolic stability (to extend the half-life), and oral bioavailability. The medication development process can begin after a molecule that fits all of these characteristics has been discovered. If the experiment is a success, clinical trials are established. As a result, current drug discovery is often a capital-intensive process requiring significant contributions from both the pharmaceutical industry and national governments (who provide grants and loan guarantees).

Despite technological advances and advances in our understanding of biological systems, drug development remains a time-consuming, expensive, demanding, and inefficient process with a low rate of new therapeutic discoveries. Finding drugs with the potential to be economically or publicly successful necessitates a complex interplay between investors, industry, academics, patent regulations, regulatory exclusivity, marketing, and the need to strike a balance between secrecy and transparency. Meanwhile, the orphan drug financing mechanism ensures that people suffering from ailments have some hope of pharmacotherapeutic breakthroughs, even if their rarity prevents them from achieving economic success or having a significant public health impact.

The pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies' R&D activity has skyrocketed. Pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and medical device companies invest a lot of money in creating novel medicines and devices, with phase III and preclinical phases receiving most of their funding. One of the key reasons driving the global drug discovery market is the increase in R&D spending, which is driven by the need for different preclinical and clinical services during the drug discovery and development process. Drug research and development costs are costly due to the high attrition rate of drug candidates in development. Drug R&D procedures can fail because R&D for some rare diseases is challenging and needs a specific set of people to participate in a clinical trial.

Furthermore, high financial costs, difficulties in participant recruitment and retention, inadequacies in the clinical research workforce, drug sponsor-imposed barriers, regulatory and administrative barriers, the disconnect between clinical research and medical care, and barriers related to clinical research globalization could all have a negative impact on the overall drug development process. As a result, companies are forced to invest in generic pharmaceutical development rather than new medicine research. The need for modern survey equipment is growing as construction projects necessitate more exact data to complete the project in a timely and precise manner. As a result, there is a growing demand for advanced survey equipment.

Many companies are making significant investments in the development of biologics. Biologics, such as proteins, peptides, and monoclonal antibodies, currently account for more than half of all therapeutic candidates under development. As more biologics are produced or are in the pipeline, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies are investing extensively in R&D. In this market, CROs have gained prominence as providers of specialized services such as biologics and drug discovery. Because, unlike chemically synthesized APIs, demonstrating bioequivalence for a biotech-based API is difficult and complex, the biologic approval approach is more severe than the generic drug approval pathway.

As a result, biologics demand specialized testing procedures as compared to small chemicals. This will help contract research service companies to diversify their portfolios and expertise by adding drug discovery services to their offerings. The COVID-19 epidemic, which is a historic global public health hazard that is expected to have a significant impact on this market for diagnostics and research applications, which is another hurdle in the industry's growth.

Recent Developments in the Global Drug Discovery Technology Market

●      November 2020, With Genentech (U.S.), Genesis Therapeutics (U.S.) formed an AI-driven, multi-target drug development relationship. Genesis' graph machine learning and drug discovery skills will be used in this cooperation to uncover novel drug candidates for therapeutic targets in a variety of illness domains.

●      January 2020, Bayer (Germany) partnered with Exscientia (U.K.), an artificial intelligence drug discovery startup, to find and develop innovative lead structures for prospective therapeutic candidates in the treatment of cardiovascular and oncological disorders.

Key players:

Thermo Fisher Scientific (U.S.), Corning Incorporated (U.S.), Merck (U.S.), Lonza Group (Switzerland), Getinge AB (Sweden), ChemoMetec (Denmark), Cesco Bioengineering (Taiwan), Himedia Laboratories (India), Esco VacciXcell (Singapore), Sartorius (Germany), Danaher Corporation (U.S.), Becton (U.S.), Dickinson and Company (U.S.), and Eppendorf AG (Germany), among others.