why research into natural products in pharmaceutical industry has been reduced???

Hello readers here I would like represent my small review on why research into natural products in pharmaceutical industry has been reduced. 

1. Natural products and their derivatives have invaluable role as therapeutic agents from ancient times. However from past few years research into natural products as pharmaceutical drugs has been decreased. This may be due to lack of compatibility of natural products libraries ( Extracted products) with current high-throughout screening method. Even though recent technological advances that can address these issues coupled with advances in lead generation technologies, made a renewed interest in pharmaceutical natural products drug discovery. 
2. Chemical substances obtained from plants used as human therapeutic agents from long time. During the period of 1970-1980, pharmaceutical industry landscape heavily influenced by natural and non-synthetic therapeutic agents.
3. From 1981-2002 half of the New Chemical Entities introduced were based on natural and semi synthetic products.However from last two decades research into natural products in pharmaceutical industry was declined . The below figure shows the world wide small-molecule natural products patents approved between 1984-2003. 

      4. The decrease in natural product research can be attributed to so many factors like:

• Introduction of High-throughput screening
• Comibinatorial Chemistry
• Advances in molecular biology, cell biology and genomics
• Declining emphasis of major pharmaceutical companies on infectious disease therapy , an area of strength for natural products.
• Possible uncertainties regarding collection of bio material after 1992 Rio convention on Biological Diversity. 

I am looking forward to write the extent of post in coming days with regard to advanced technologies in natural drug discovery and lead-generation techniques. Feel free to give your opinions...

References:

1.Newman, D. J., Cragg, G. M. & Snader, K. M. Natural products as a source of new drugs over the period 1981–2002. J. Nat. Prod. 66, 1002–1037 (2003). A detailed analysis and description of current natural-product-derived therapeutic agents.

2. Projan, S. J. Infectious diseases in the 21st century: increasing threats, fewer new treatments and a premium on prevention. Cur. Opin. Pharmacol. 3, 457–458 (2003).

With regards,

Santhosh Rao Mennani 

Posted in: My reviews