Pharmaceuticals companies with synthetically based products have exerted a powerful influence on healthcare over the past hundred years. They have largely concentrated their research and development on synthesizing substances modelled on substances which occur in nature. Modification of these substances yielded “new chemical entities” (NCE). Problems of resistance and negative side-effects cast doubt on the NCE paradigm: namely, that a complex illness can be treated with a single active agent (known as the “single golden molecular bullet”).
Despite innovative techniques, conventional pharmaceutical companies place few genuine innovations on the market. However, there is a rising trend towards registration of combination formulations: products consisting of two or more active substances.
