Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes - high hopes are placed on the ability of academia and the pharmaceutical industry to harness the findings of modern genetics to develop a new generation of more effective drugs. However, recent year’s break-throughs in genetics research have not been matched by an equal advancement in the development of new drugs. Several reasons may account for this, one of which is the legal framework for drug discovery. Also, clinical trials have become ever more expensive to run and increasingly bring ethical problems with them.  The Oxford at Said seminar explores these issues and how some of the problems could be solved.

This Oxford at Saïd seminar explored issues revolving around the breakthroughs and challenges in the search for new drugs. Vincenzo Libri focused on the complexity of early phase drug development and the key elements of exploratory clinical trials. Chas Bountra argued in his talk that the current system of Intellectual Property protection greatly impedes the discovery of new drugs and offered ideas for reform. Finally, Mark Sheehan discussed the ethical issues around the running of clinical trials.