According to Eli Lilly
Attacking multiple pathways has become the norm for many treatment areas. HIV drug cocktails attack multiple proteins the virus needs to replicate. Both Merck's
But why combine the drugs into a single molecule when two individual drugs can be taken in combination? Lilly claims you can get better efficacy and reduced side effects.
I'll believe it when I see it. The company already has "several" multi-specific therapeutics, but they're all in preclinical development, so I get to remain skeptical for a little while longer.
My guess is that this push toward hitting multiple targets with one drug -- Abbott Labs
The chance for higher sales is enough of a reason to give it a try; one plus one might actually be worth more than two. But the same math works on the drug design side as well. Designing drugs to attack one target is difficult enough, so combining multiple targets is likely to prove more troublesome than just attacking each individually. Only time will tell which equation will win.
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