With the advent of genomics and every major company being involved in genomics in all therapeutic areas, I think that distinction has blurred. He believes that the distinction between pharmaceutical and biotech companies is less relevant today than it was in the early 1990s. Many start-up biotechnology companies have chemistry at their core. For example, Sugen pursued small-molecule therapeutics from its beginning, McMahon says. Sugen uses a variety of chemical approaches, including combinatorial and computational chemistry.
Some projects require increasing diversity through combinatorial chemistry.
Other times computational chemistry with models of target inhibition is the best approach. There isn't a generic formula that would allow one to say that if you make 10,000 molecules you're going to end up with a blockbuster drug. It doesn't work that way. Anadys Pharmaceuticals in San Diego and GeneSoft in South San Francisco are two other examples of biotech companies concentrating on chemistry. Most companies are based on biology, whereas chemistry is a little newer for start-ups.