European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology

, Volume 62, Issue 2, pp 91–95 | Cite as

Translational medicine: can it really facilitate the transition of research “from bench to bedside”?

Point of View
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Translational medicine is intended to facilitate the transition of basic science results to clinical practice, thereby sharing major aspects of clinical pharmacology. Biomarkers need to be developed to achieve this, and their predictive values need to be assessed. Despite all the attempts to increase output from costly pharmaceutical research investments, all stakeholders complain of the decreasing efficiency of drug development processes, and expensive late attritions seem to be seen at increasing rates. How can translational medicine improve this apparent mismatch between effort and tangible result for daily medical practice? What is missing, and where do we stand?

Keywords

Translational medicine Biomarkers Life sciences 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. 1.
    FDA: Challenge and opportunity on the critical path to new medicines. http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/criticalpath/whitepaper.pdfGoogle Scholar
  2. 2.
    Boldyreff B, Wehling M (2004) Aldosterone: refreshing a slow hormone by swift action. News Physiol Sci 19:97–100CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.
    Frank R, Hargreaves R (2003) Clinical biomarkers in drug discovery and development. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2:566–580CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  4. 4.
    Schonbeck U, Libby P (2004) Inflammation, immunity, and HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors: statins as antiinflammatory agents? Circulation 109(21 Suppl 1):II18–II26CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  5. 5.
    Stahl A, Wieder H, Piert M, Wester HJ, Senekowitsch-Schmidtke R, Schwaiger M (2004) Positron emission tomography as a tool for translational research in oncology. Mol Imaging Biol 6:214–224CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  6. 6.
    Rolan P, Atkinson AJ Jr, Lesko LJ, Scientific Organizing Committee, Conference Report Committee (2003) Use of biomarkers from drug discovery through clinical practice: report of the Ninth European Federation of Pharmaceutical Sciences Conference on Optimizing Drug Development. Clin Pharmacol Ther 73:284–291CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  7. 7.
    Biomarkers Definitions Working Group Biomarkers and surrogate endpoints (2001) Preferred definitions and conceptual Framework. Clin Pharmacol Ther 69:89–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. 8.
    Koek GH, Sifrim D, Lerut T, Janssens J, Tack J (2003) Effect of the GABAB agonist baclofen in patients with symptoms and duodeno-gastro-oesophageal reflux refractory to proton pump inhibitors. Gut 52:1397–1402CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  9. 9.
    Leyland-Jones B (2001) Maximizing the response to Herceptin therapy through optimal use and patient selection. Anticancer Drugs 12(Suppl)4:S11–S17PubMedGoogle Scholar
  10. 10.
    Bilello JA (2005) The agony and ecstasy of "OMIC" technologies in drug development. Curr Mol Med 5:39–52CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  11. 11.
    Stoughton RB Friend SH (2005) How molecular profiling could revolutionize drug discovery. Nat Rev Drug Discov 4:345–350CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2005

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Clinical Medicine MannheimUniversity of HeidelbergMannheimGermany
  2. 2.AstraZeneca R&DMölndalSweden

Personalised recommendations