Biological-based drugs and medicines are to become a key focus for research and development (R&D) in the coming years.

This is according to Professor Gino Martini, a pharmacist and senior director at GlaxoSmithKline, who said businesses want to diversify and look at new areas of disease for their products with pharma Fix-a-Form labels.

"A lot of companies are developing [things such as] monochrome antibodies and vaccines and it seems the proportion is getting larger," he commented.

The expert added that more focus is being placed on consumers, over the counter medicines, nutrition and new medical devices as patents for original drugs run out.

Earlier this month, Professor Martini also said he thinks personalised medicine will become big news, resulting in each patient being able to consult printed labels for tailored instructions.

He explained this would make drugs more effective and cut the number of side effects suffered with generic medicine.

Denny Bros Ltd, 14 July 2011