Bioprospecting: An Industrial Perspective

Abstract

The discovery of promising new biologically active molecules from natural products was a mainstay of the pharmaceutical industry for many years. While interest in this field has fluctuated over the years, it entered a boom period following the Earth Summit and Rio Convention in the early 1990s lasting into the twenty-first century. This boom period was followed by the industry's almost complete exit from this field of endeavor. This chapter presents a discussion of the changes in the capabilities of natural products research and factors contributing to the demise of natural products in the drug discovery programs in Big Pharma.