As the five-year initiative to double National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) budget was completed only in 2003, there was no hike in the 2006 drug discovery budget over 2005. This lack of growth is likely to last for the next two to three years, affecting academic and government research spending.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (www.drugdiscovery.frost.com), World Drug Discovery Technologies Markets Outlook, reveals that the market earned revenues of $37.4 billion in 2005 and estimates this to reach $45.5 billion in 2009.

Slowed growth in R&D budgets expect to significantly affect the market for research products. The three major contributors to drug discovery spending- pharmaceuticals, biotechnology companies, and academic/government institutes, are all experiencing changes that will shape the future market for life science reagents, consumables, and instrumentation. Understanding these changes, and the market opportunities associated with them, will be key to the success of companies competing in the research products market.

“Major goals for research facilities include improved efficiency and reduced overall R&D costs,” says Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager, Jessica Patel. “Research product vendors should work to develop technologies that are automated, standardized, and integrated.”

Additionally, the reduced budgets expect to intensify competition in the drug discovery field until 2009. Hence, drug discovery technology vendors have to strategically position their products and strengthen customer relationships.

Inventers of drug discovery technologies should design instruments with high sensitivity and focus on offering higher throughputs. In addition, manufacturers can also expand microfluidics applications to curtail costs.

Drug discovery technologies that have potential as a clinical diagnostic tool are likely to remain popular. Some of these solutions include qRT-PCR, mass spectrometry, protein and DNA microarrays, and sequencing technologies. Drug discovery companies will have to focus on developing innovative research tools, specifically with a focus on functional genomics and proteomics.

Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly realizing that cutting-edge research tools are vital for understanding diseases better. Moreover, since they are at the forefront of innovations, they are likely to adopt new research product lines quickly.

With research tools for biological and chemical interactions becoming more sophisticated, pharmaceuticals’ understanding of the molecular basis for disease is improving. To catalyze the development of more effective drugs, the NIH is introducing initiatives to develop smaller and faster drug discovery technologies.

“The NIH is also considering commissioning multidisciplinary research teams to combine the skills of researchers, train investigators, and develop novel support mechanisms to facilitate research endeavors,” notes Patel. “It is also looking to re-engineer clinical research enterprise to incorporate modern information technology with clinical research.”