Research and Development of Pharmaceuticals Industry

The pharmaceutical industry is plagued with several challenges ranging from environmental issues, loss of revenue owing to patent expirations, increasing demand for cost effective healthcare systems and challenging regulatory requirements. 

 

The R&D wing of pharmaceutical industry is concerned with finding new innovative drug to fight major diseases. However increasing stiff competition between pharma companies and growing regulatory requirement has resulted in low R&D productivity. R&D Pharmaceutical Industry cannot sustain sufficient innovation without a dramatic increase in R&D productivity to replace the loss of revenues due to patent expirations for its products.

Research and Development offers a sustainable long-term competitive advantage, which is a vital component for coming up with new therapeutic interventions. Companies are more engrossed in developing Novel Drug Delivery Systems, Generic Drug Products, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), and New Drug Development Processes.The focus of R&D is on quality product development, while ensuring safety and efficacy of drugs.

Importance of Pharmaceutical Research and Development(R&D):

• Discovery of quality drugs.

• Cost-effective drug manufacturing.

• Improved health care.

Rising drug prices continue to be one of the most substantial issues for the pharma industry, as affordable health care remains a top priority for governments worldwide. The pharma sector is one such sector where the products are seldom purchased by consumer taste and preference, therefore market forces do not influence prices except for generic drugs. The increasing cost of R&D for new molecules, as well as increasing health care budgets, growing regulations and mounting governmental pressure to reduce drug prices have encouraged companies to increase their generic manufacturing business.

Research and development is the crucial to the future of pharma industry. The hard-hitting competition has emphasized that Pharma Companies continue to invest in R&D as changing lifestyle’s and increased focus on reimbursability and affordability make it crucial for the R&D teams to take an innovative approach to coming up with new drugs.

Top 10 Rare Diseases

Image Credit From Biospectrum

We live in a world where there are thousands of chronic diseases that surround us. Films, television and print media have discussed fatal diseases like HIV AIDS, Cancer, Brain Tumor, TB and others. However, there many other exceptionally rare diseases that are not very highly discussed topic of interest in general. The top 10 Rare diseases comprises of medical maladies and conditions that haven’t been heard nor are their cures available at large.

The top 10 rare diseases are as follows:

1. Jumping Frenchmen of Maine:

A person suffering with this disease experiences an extreme involuntary yet a very natural startle like movements on hearing the slightest of sounds or sometimes even during a least sight of random things. This startling-reaction syndrome can lead to a numerous different kind of unexpected startles form different people as per records and observations made around the world. However, this rare disease hasn’t been studied thoroughly and its cause still remains a mystery to the doctors and scientists in the world.

2. Hypertrichosis : 

This rare disease is marred with the symptoms of the affected person experiencing extreme hair growth on the face as well as some other parts of the body. The pattern of the hair growth is very different and can make the affected person almost look like a wolf. Thereby this disease is also known as ‘Ware wolf Syndrome’. With a possibility of happening to one in a billion population, this disease is a genetic disorder that still remains a big mystery to medical science with cure in sight any time soon.

3. Argyria :

 Originally caused due to too much of skin contact with silver salts or chemical form substances, this unique disease is known to affect coalmine workers or the workers of silver mining and refining and any other metal or alloy manufacturing factories.

4. Alien Hand Syndrome :



This is a neurological disorder wherein; one of the hands of the affected person is not under his voluntary control. The person is completely unaware of the functions of the hand almost as if a different brain controls it.

5. Parry-Romberg Syndrome :

This is a one of its kind facial disease, in which the skin as well as the tissues of either one of the half sides of the face gets damaged, deforms and shrinks abnormally. In some extreme cases, both the sides of the face are affected as a result of shrinking up of the soft tissues.

6. Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (PMP) :

PMP is an exceptional type of cancer in which the cancer first affects the appendix area in the body of a person. Eventually, this disease slowly develops and spread to areas of the abdomen and ovary. Mucin, a jelly like substance, is produced at large into the appendix leading to the swelling up of the appendix and gradually extending the substance in the neighboring areas of the appendix.

7.Adult Onset Still’s Disease :

This is an extreme case of arthritis, where people suffering with Still’s experience unbearable joint pains and a high, pink coloured rashes near the joints, sore throat and rising fever at least 2 times a day. This deadly disease with time leads to the complete damage and destruction of your body joints. There is no cure for the disease and causes of the condition are also unknown.

8.Wolman Disease :

This disease occurs in infants and early age of childhood leading to the death of the affected person in early childhood days only. This disease is marred by symptoms like fever, diarrhea, malnutrition, swelling of intestines and spleen and delays in development of the body

9.Necrotizing Fasciitis :

 Also known as the ‘flesh-eating bacteria disease’, this deadly infection can affected the healthiest people surviving. In this disease, the affecting bacterium destroys and eats up the fat, skin and the tissue. It may affect one part and then quickly spread to other parts as well. It symptoms are weak consumption of steroid medicines, immune system, has surgical cuts or injuries on parts of their body, or had been affected by chicken pox very recently. At least 1 in every 4 people suffering with this infection has been reported dead.

10.Mowat-Wilson Syndrome :

Some of its key symptoms are intellectual disability, deformed head structure and pulled down development of the body. These symptoms are predominant from early childhood age and begin exposing their effect on a person’s body by childhood or adult age. There are very few cases with patients suffering from this disease have been reported.