Nanotechnology has come centre-stage thorough making each and every thing unimaginably smaller and handier. In the world of drug discovery, technology has shrunk to even smaller proportions - where dimensions are less than 1/1,000th the diameter of a human hair.
Although nanotechnology is being embraced by industries as varied as electronics and materials, many agree that the biggest promise of the technology lies in drug discovery where it is expected to improve the way that drugs are developed and delivered. But are pharmaceutical companies making the most of this potentially revolutionising technology?
Earlier this year, a report released by US research and advisory firm Lux Research revealed that big pharmaceutical companies were failing to invest in nanotech.
The report, Why Big Pharma Is Missing The Nanotech Opportunity, found that big pharma companies on average commit 16 people and less than half a per cent of R&D spending to nanotechnology research. In contrast, like-sized electronics and materials firms commit more than 100 people and more than 8 per cent of R&D spending to the research.
Big pharma is not investing in nanotech today, explains Matthew M Nordan, vice president of research at Lux Research. If this trend continues, nanotech will play out in pharmaceuticals just as biotechnology did, with major pharmaceutical companies leaving money on the table and allowing new competitors to take root, he says.
The report's findings were not a one-off. A report conducted last year by the UK Institute of Nanotechnology also found that most large pharma companies "have yet to identify the `killer application' that would justify large amounts of R&D funding".
"Although most multinationals in the UK recognise the importance of nanotechnology to future innovation and profitability, few have yet to formulate a coherent short-medium term strategy, and linkage with the research base is tentative," the report adds.
And in 2003, a survey on business intentions for nanotechnology found that firms were still unsure of how the technology would fit with their business models, so were keeping a "watching brief" before committing resources.
Despite these findings, big pharma is slowly coming round to the idea and, as in niche product development, the pharma giants are leaving the R&D to the minnows.
One such minnow is US nanotechnology firm Quantum Dot Corporation. The company has developed Qdot nanocrystals - nano-scale crystals that shine brightly when excited by a light source, helping researchers and surgeons to observe their work with greater sensitivity and longevity than current imaging techniques.
The technique has been adopted by AstraZeneca, Genentech and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and was also named best nanotechnology product of 2003 by Nanotechnology Now.
GSK has also struck a deal with Japanese company NanoCarrier to carry out exploratory research studies on a GSK compound using NanoCarrier's micellar nanoparticle technology.
An analyst at Frost & Sullivan, believes that collaboration is the way forward for nanotechnology research: "Forming synergistic collaborations with drug and medical device companies represents one of the most obvious routes for achieving multi-disciplinary proficiency."
"Initially, such partnerships could take the form of joint marketing efforts, paving the way for nanomedical companies to independently handle all stages from R&D to commercialisation in the long run."
However, big pharma is starting to sit up and take notice of nanotech. In the US, Baxter Healthcare works closely with the Northwestern University's Institute for Bioenginee-ring and Nanoscience in Advanced Medicine on nanoscience projects.
- PMLive.com