{"id":52,"date":"2016-06-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/connectedlab\/biologics-discovery-solution-biologics-workflow-considerations\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T10:06:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T10:06:08","slug":"biologics-discovery-solution-biologics-workflow-considerations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/connectedlab\/biologics-discovery-solution-biologics-workflow-considerations\/","title":{"rendered":"Biologics Discovery Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Small Molecule Drug Discovery Workflows versus Biologics Workflows<\/h2>\n

\"SmallOK, Trivia buffs: who first coined the phrase \u201csmall is beautiful?\u201d You get an honorable mention if you answered\u00a0British economist E.F. Schumacher<\/a>, but the correct answer is Austrian philosopher and economist\u00a0Dr. Leopold Kohr<\/a>, who was one of Schumacher\u2019s teachers.<\/p>\n

For therapeutic drugs, small has certainly been beautiful, with the vast majority of marketed drugs being described as \u201csmall molecules,\u201d i.e., molecular weight < 900 Daltons (Aspirin is 180 Daltons). Though these drugs have been profitable for large companies, they fulfill the philosophy espoused by small is beautiful \u2013 improving life for the common man. There have been long-standing exceptions, of course, with insulin weighing in at 5807 Daltons, and erythropoietin (EPO) at 30-34K Daltons, but these biologic entities are better described as large molecules.<\/p>\n

A small set of stable and well characterized parameters easily describes typical small molecule research workflows (e.g. synthesize, register, inventory, test, analyze, repeat). But this is too limited and inflexible to tackle the volume, variability, and velocity of the data and datatypes needed to manage and capture the output from complex, multi-disciplinary biologics research activities or production runs.<\/p>\n

Special Considerations for Biologics Drug Discovery<\/h2>\n

While small molecule drugs continue to be developed for treating and curing diseases, there is increasing interest and focus on biologics R&D, with\u00a0seven out of eight<\/a>\u00a0of the top selling drugs worldwide in 2014 being biologics. We discussed the substantial differences between small molecule<\/a> and biologic drugs, particularly in relation to the processes used to create them, and the methods used to characterize, identify and track them. These differences in turn pose challenges for any LIMS systems or informatics tools being designed to support biologics research and production workflows.<\/p>\n

Specific biologics-focused informatics tools are necessary for optimal outcomes. Requirements of these tools include:<\/p>\n