Connections in pharmacology: innovation serving translational medicine

There is a paucity of molecules that progress through the drug development pipeline, making the drug discovery process expensive and frustrating. Innovative approaches to drug development are therefore required to maximise opportunities. Strategies such as the Connectivity Map (CMap), which compares >7000 gene expression signatures generated from more than 1000 drugs, can produce associations between currently unrelated therapeutics, unveiling new mechanisms of action and favouring drug repositioning. Here, we discuss these opportunities that could aid the drug development process and propose rigorous publication of 'omics data with open access and data sharing. We, pharmacologists of the third millennium, must aim towards maximising knowledge in an unbiased and cost-effective manner, to deliver new drugs for the global benefit of patients.