Drug discovery and developments in developing countries: bottlenecks and way forward

Abstract

Infectious and parasitic diseases continue to threaten the health of million of people throughout the world, with the major burden being in developing countries. Many of the currently available drugs for the treatment of these diseases face setbacks such as insufficient efficacy, increasing loss of effectiveness due to emergence of resistance, high levels of toxicity, inaccessibility and/or high costs. The driving force for drug discovery and development by pharmaceutical firms has been the foreseeable profit from drug sells. Since most infectious diseases prevail in developing countries and the fact that people living in these countries have poor purchasing power, the market for such drugs are unattractive to these firms. Thus, there has been reluctance for the pharmaceutical companies to engage in the development of drugs addressing diseases that mainly affect developing countries. Although a lot of research to discover new effective and cheap drugs is in progress in the disease endemic countries, it is not yet possible to fully develop leads and drug candidates from natural products, hence people in these countries continue to rely on traditional medicines. Poor economies and technological capabilities, lack of human resources and good management in these countries are the major constraints to progress in research and development work for new drugs. This paper discusses these major bottlenecks in drug discovery and development and suggests the way forward.

Keywords: drug discovery, traditional medicine, infectious diseases, developing countries

Tanzania Health Research Bulletin Vol. 7(3) 2005: 154-158