If a project is going well, people pop champagne in the halls. If not, they feel the pressure, because they know the fate of the company is on the line. What's wonderful is that you can see the direct impact your work has on the company's fortunes, probably more so than in a larger company. That's just the nature of a small company. There is no other area where there is so much unmet need and so few truly effective drugs.
Neuropsychiatric disease is associated with enormous individual and societal costs.
For example, there are many drugs available for the treatment of depression, but about 40 percent of patients are treatment resistant. It's an era of great excitement. For the first time, we have access to specific molecular targets to try to identify drugs with which to treat neuropsychiatric disease. These elements have resulted in a great opportunity in drug development, which is why several of the larger pharmaceutical companies, such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer, have joined the search for effective agents. Here in Wallingford, we're looking at significant expansion in the neuroscience program, about 25 percent this year and more in 1998.