A pessimistic View on the Future of Drugs: Pharmapolicy Determines Whether New Drugs will Become Available

Our Journal, now in its third year, has earned for itself a reputation of being the fastest forum for disseminating the results of research on inflammation processes, in particular within the field of mediators. This field continues to undergo a spectacular growth in several directions (immunopathology, allergology, joint conditions, pulmonary disorders, transplantation etc.), all of which are well represented in reviews and research articles of Mediators of Inflammation. Increased knowledge about mediators has also a considerable impact on finding and developing improved drugs for treating the above conditions. Accordingly, articles dealing with this theme would be particularly welcome in our Journal. To this end we invited Professor. H. Timmerman, a leading expert in pharmacochemistry and drug development, to put forward his personal view on this subject. We hope that this Debate Article will precipitate a response from research workers of the pharmaceutical industry. Responses to this article and/or other submissions around this subject would be encouraged by the Editors.