Drug Development in Endometriosis and Adenomyosis: It Takes More Than Just Good Science

The pipelines of pharmaceutical companies are filled with thousands of promising new compounds for a plethora of indications. Yet, a close review of the drugs that have recently been in clinical trials quickly reveals that only a handful of drugs under evaluation in women with endometriosis can be genuinely qualified as truly innovative and breakthrough drugs. Why is there such an industry-wide lukewarm interest in drug research and development for endometriosis/adenomyosis? Why are pharmaceutical companies so reluctant to initiate programs or invest in academic research in endometriosis/adenomyosis? It is evident that a substantial part of the novel druggable targets originate from research in academia. However, only the pharmaceutical industry has the resources and expertise to bring drugs to patients. In other words, we are fully dependent on the pharmaceutical industry to bring new therapeutics to the market. The aim of this editorial is to make scientists from academia aware of the enormous complexity of the drug development process, the drivers that propel pharmaceutical companies to initiate new programs and to prioritize their portfolios, the value of intellectual property rights, and also about the importance of scientific rigor, predictive translational models, and biomarkers. At the same time, the pharmaceutical industry must be made aware of the enormous opportunity at hand, as the current patient population with endometriosis/adenomyosis is just the tip of the iceberg. We hope that the insights presented here will enable the endometriosis/adenomyosis research community to find ways to valorize their knowledge and attract the interest of the industry.

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Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article Groothuis, P.G., Guo, SW. Drug Development in Endometriosis and Adenomyosis: It Takes More Than Just Good Science. Reprod. Sci. 25, 1318–1329 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1177/1933719118785767 Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1933719118785767