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Overcoming obstacles to developing new analgesics

Nature Medicine volume 16, pages 1241–1247 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Despite substantial investment by the pharmaceutical industry over several decades, there has been little progress in developing new, efficacious and safe analgesics. As a result, many large pharmaceutical companies are leaving the area of pain medication. Nevertheless, the chances of success could increase if analgesic drug development strategy changed. To achieve such a paradigm shift we must understand why development of drugs for pain relief is so challenging.

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Figure 1: The standard analgesic drug development pathway.
Figure 2: A proposed new analgesic drug development pathway.

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Acknowledgements

I thank E. Forster, P. Vallance, S. Tate, R. Mannion, B. Wainger and J. Sprague for useful and constructive criticism and comments. This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Department of Neurology, Children's Hospital Boston and Department of Neurobiology, F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center and Program in Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Clifford J Woolf

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Correspondence to Clifford J Woolf.

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Competing interests

Clifford J. Woolf declares grant support from GlaxoSmithKline and Endo Pharmaceuticals and is a consultant to Endo Pharmaceuticals, Taisho Pharmaceutical and Solace Pharmaceuticals.

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Woolf, C. Overcoming obstacles to developing new analgesics. Nat Med 16, 1241–1247 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2230

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