Overall importance of different classes of drug targets
	According to D&MD Reports, the top drugs targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) generate about 20 times more sales, than the top drugs targeting kinases (Fig. 1). However, many more kinases than GPCRs are commercially available for drug screening, and 30% of the R&D effort is spent on the kinases. Judged by sales, steroid/nuclear receptors (NRs) are second only to GPCRs.
	Fig. 1. Drug sales specific to targets
	Problem: the drug discovery effort is biased in favor of easier but less promising targets.
	Due to the sequencing of the human genome, microarray technologies, computational biology, combinatorial chemistry and the advent of robotics, the last decade witnessed dramatic improvements in high throughput screening and drug target discovery methods. However, these achievements did not result in a significant increase of successful drugs on the market.
	The focus is shifting from more throughput to better target validation and more targeted chemistries. AB Vector believes that on par with the above, the drug discovery process is affected by the tendency to work with less promising, but easier targets as the most promising proteins are difficult to produce.
	Currently, many of the most promising proteins can not be produced in native form allowing high throughput drug screening, optimization of lead compounds, protein structure-based drug design and production of therapeutic antibodies or development of protein therapeutics.
	AB Vector strength is ability to express not just a drug target, but also a set of specific factors required for its maturation and full activity. AB Vector developed the first commercially available expression system (multi-chaperone systems) customized for producing a specific class of protein targets (steroid receptors). Similar systems customized for production of certain classes of GPCRs are currently being developed. Using this unique technology, AB Vector hopes to unlock the vast potential of the most promising but "difficult to produce" targets.