Combinatorics IRCD - etude de marche

Identified by The Economist (*) as the industry to watch for 1997 in the chemicals

sector, Combinatorics (also known as combinatorial chemistry) is an emerging

platform technology that uses test tube evolution to rapidly generate libraries

of new drug candidates from which those with the right properties are selected.

Reducing substantially research costs, the scope and reach of this technology

which represents an industry worth well over $2 billion, is enormous.

The structure of the Industry Review and Company Database on Combinatorics reflects

the breadth and scope of the Combinatorics industry itself. Companies are listed

alphabetically, and also by major geographical region and by function. In addition,

there is an extensive listing of patents that have been issued and assigned

to the companies herein. The patents are ones that are directly related to some

aspect of Combinatorics. A concise overview of the Combinatorics industry as

a business is also given. It describes the evolution of the industry and its

current state, outlines key strategic business and financial elements and delineates

trends. In total, 25 separate sources of information have been used to compile

the information presented in the IR&CD. They include all the major print

and on-line databases that cover the biotechnology industry and several other

specific sources as well, giving the users the widest and deepest possible insight

into the current position of Combinatorics and its likely future development

and helping them with their own approach to the field, by providing the key

strategic awareness necessary for participation in this explosive arena.

Combinatorics is the generation and screening of libraries of large numbers

of variants of a molecular theme, such as a peptide, nucleic acid, or derivatives

thereof. The purpose is to find good candidate molecules for a particular application,

such as a new drug, in a quick and efficient manner. There are three steps which

are iterated as many times as necessary: (1) Generation of combinatorial library

of molecules (of the order of 104-15 different molecules); (2) Selection of

molecules by appropriate screening (for example, binding to specific target,

which can be any biological surface, such as a receptor, enzyme, virus component,

antibody, gene etc.); (3) Amplification of selected molecules, creation of variants

based on the selected molecules, and generation of new library of variants of

the selected molecules.

A large, diverse compound library produced by Combinatorics increases the probability

that a company will find lead molecules of commercial value in a shorter timeframe

than if it relied solely on other methods of lead discivery. Combinatorics has

been made possible by advances in molecular biology, high throughput screening,

laboratory miniaturization and robotics, and information management. Entry barriers

are low, and given its platform nature and breadth of applications, Combinatorics

has been incorporated into the technology portfolio of every major player in

the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and agrochemical fields.

The user pool is diverse, and includes companies that develop human therapeutics,

are in the agricultural and veterinary biotechnology areas, develop automated

laboratory instrumentation for assays and high throughput screening, and develop

information management systems for the drug discovery process.

The market capitalization of the ten public Combinatorics-based companies in

the U.S. tracked herein has grown by 500% since 1991, and declined by 28% since

1997, reflecting the poor performance of the biotech sector as a whole.