Creating New Medicines

Introduction
The aim of Ferring’s research and development is to create new medicines that can improve the treatment of disease and reduce human suffering and it is these goals that motivate us. Ferring creates both traditional pharmaceuticals (chemical compounds) as well as biotechnology1 derived medicines (biologicals). Pharmaceutical biotechnology has led to greater understanding of human genetics2 and genomics3 and has allowed Ferring’s scientists to improve their knowledge of targeted disease areas.

Ferring has developed particular expertise in peptide4 [url: "/en/randd/Creating+New+Medicines/Ferrings+expertise/Peptides.htm" ]-based drugs [url: "/en/randd/Creating+New+Medicines/Ferrings+expertise/Peptides.htm" ] and (non-peptide) small molecule [url: "/en/randd/Creating+New+Medicines/Ferrings+expertise/Small+Molecules.htm" ] based drugs [url: "/en/randd/Creating+New+Medicines/Ferrings+expertise/Small+Molecules.htm" ] and is considered a world leader in peptide research. Ferring also invests considerable resources into the development of drug delivery5 [url: "/en/randd/Creating+New+Medicines/Ferrings+expertise/Drug+Delivery.htm" ] systems [url: "/en/randd/Creating+New+Medicines/Ferrings+expertise/Drug+Delivery.htm" ] to ensure that treatments can be administered to patients in the most convenient and efficient way. The acquisition of Bio-Technology General (BTG) of Israel in 2005 has also given Ferring recombinant biotechnology development and manufacturing capacity.

Ferring invests heavily in the complicated and costly process of creating new medicines through its four R&D centres [url: "/en/randd/RandD+Centres/index.htm" ] and through research collaboration [url: "/en/busdev/Current+Partners/" ] with scientific institutes, pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies all over the world. Investment in R&D includes the incorporation of state of the art R&D technology [url: "/en/randd/Creating+New+Medicines/R+D+Technology.htm" ] to capitalise on the company’s expertise and to support Ferring scientists.

Glossary Entries
1) biotechnology - Any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.
2) human genetics - The study of genes and heredity as it occurs in humans. Heredity is the passing of genetic information and traits (such as eye color and an increased chance of getting a certain disease) from parents to offspring.
3) genomics - The study of the complete genetic material, including genes and their functions, of an organism.
4) peptide - Any compound consisting of two or more amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Peptides provide a link between a gene and its function.
5) drug delivery - A term that refers to the delivery of a pharmaceutical compound to humans or animals. Most common methods of delivery include the preferred non-invasive oral (through the mouth), nasal, pneumonial (inhalation), and rectal routes. Many medications, however, can not be delivered using these routes because they might be susceptible to degradation or are not incorporated efficiently. For this reason many protein and peptide drugs have to be delivered by injection. For example, many immunizations are based on the delivery of protein drugs and are often done by injection.

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