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Orphan Receptor Drug Discovery

 
• By Mark Ratner

In a climate favoring defined clinical product opportunities, venture capitalists have had a hard time seeing the value proposition in investing in orphan nuclear receptor drug discovery. These targets likely modulate a range of diseases, but the disease associations are undetermined. Orphan receptors are also difficult targets for drug screening. Nonetheless, a handful of start-ups are taking up the drug discovery challenge.

In a climate favoring defined clinical product opportunities, it's no wonder venture capitalists have a hard time seeing the value proposition in investing in orphan nuclear receptor drug discovery. Orphans raise red flags because the correlation between activation of orphan receptors and the corresponding role in the development, initiation, or progression of specific diseases is not known. Plus, companies have not yet shown that they can leverage a discovery technology platform across several orphan receptor targets.

Nuclear receptors are a set of hormone-dependent and hormone-independent transcription factors that are responsible for reproduction, growth, differentiation, and homeostasis....

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