Going After the Impossible

There are myriad targets that have been deemed undruggable and they "have rankled even the best-funded laboratories over the years," The Scientist says. However, some biotechs are game for taking those impossible targets on — and they appear to be seeing some success. The Scientist notes that one of those companies, Anchor Therapeutics, is working on targeting membrane receptors for Novartis and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Anchor has been able to target G-protein coupled receptors by using pepducins to change the shape of the receptor and one of its possible drugs is a pepducin that targets CXCR4, a G-protein coupled receptor found on cells of the immune system. "Our job is not to produce the same old stuff," says NeurAxon's John Andrews, whose company is also pursuing undruggables. "Our job is to make things [that] improve people's lives ... and these high-hanging fruit are some of the best ways to do that."