Why new discovery platforms take decades, not years, to become routine
- This Perspective argues that breakthrough hit-finding platforms seldom become routine after a first proof of concept and take roughly two to three decades to mature.
- Drawing on FBDD, DEL, aptamers and PROTACs, it says the bottleneck is often not the founding chemistry but organizations underestimating the time, infrastructure and talent needed in-house.
- Half-hearted commitment can spread effort thin, yielding fewer clinical candidates and weaker returns.
- It lists often-overlooked hurdles each technology must clear before driving approvals.
💡 Points Based on the abstract
Read as a chemist, a platform hit is only the start: DEL needs off-DNA resynthesis, FBDD needs structure-guided fragment growing, and PROTACs need ternary-complex and permeability work. The in-house expertise argument rings true, though the case would be stronger with a survivorship check against platforms that stalled.
📄 Paper · Journal of Medicinal Chemistry ↗ Why Breakthrough Drug Discovery Platforms Need Decades to Mature: Lessons from FBDD, DEL, Aptamers, and PROTACs