Sepacore impact in anticancer drug development – recent applications in natural product research

On the one hand, the road towards a new effective anticancer drug is long, bumpy, hidden, curvy, potholed and above all the toll is very, very high. On the other hand, the end of the road usually ends in the land of plenty. The market for anti-cancer products is predicted to grow from $54 billion in 2009 to $75 billion in 2015 and is deemed to be the most lucrative therapy sector. However, only one of 5000 drug candiates finally masters the road. In addition, identification of drug candidates itself usually involves years of reserach. So far, about 50 % of the anticancer drugs were discoverd in natural products such as medicinal plants or marine organisms. [3] Here, we selectively highlight recent research on finding anticancer drug canditates from natural origin using Sepacore for product isolation.