The published scientific literature is not an objective map of disease biology. It reflects what has already been funded and studied. That reality shapes the questions we ask, the targets we nominate, and consequently the assets that reach the clinic.

Too often drug discovery begins with a target chosen because it is visible in the literature, not because it best explains the biology of the patient. This creates a herding effect. Once a mechanism is validated by a first-in-class success, it attracts disproportionate follow-on investment. Resources are concentrated in a few corridors chasing the best-in-class, while leaving large swathes of biology under-explored.

If we want to break free from this, we need to take a different tack: biology-up, not target-down. Driven by data, not by history.

Instead of choosing a target for a disease and then looking for drugs to modulate that target, we should focus on identifying the mechanistic drivers of disease and seek to reverse them. At Scripta, this has led us to focus on a family of proteins called transcription factors—master regulators that both describe and drive cellular biology…

To read on, please to head our blog: Insights.