First to market with a new and highly effective drug normally wins. Right now, for example, Amgen Inc., the world's biggest biotechnology company, is fighting a big patent infringement suit against Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. and Aventis over Amgen's blockbuster anemia-fighting drug Epogen, a drug developed from genes. Billions are at stake. Lawyers for other biotech companies are sitting in the U.S. District Court trial in New York taking notes and patrolling the halls to glean tidbits of potentially useful information for their clients. In the new world of molecular genetic medicine, the computer has become the most important tool for drug discovery.
Powerful computers are key to genomics research.
We couldn't do any work without them,'' said scientist Lincoln Stein, an associate professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Automated computerized sifting of human, animal, plant and microorganism genomes could unlock the secrets of cancer, the complexities of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, the mysteries of degenerative brain conditions such as Lou Gehrig's Disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, or mental illness and birth defects. Some are developing regenerative medicine to repair nerves, muscles, skin and bones. The big drug companies and biotechnology companies increasingly are basing research on DNA science and the fact that most diseases involve genes and tiny errors in their replication or a breakdown of their function. The new wave of bio-technologies is geared toward finding those glitches at the molecular level of the genes and proteins in human cells and tissue.