In the view of Dr Cirac and Dr Romero-Isart, a virus is just a particularly large molecule, so existing techniques should work on it.

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Cambridge Display dominates the large-molecule segment, having just acquired its main rival, a British firm called Opsys.

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In the case of a newer drug class called biologics, the cost could be even higher, as they are highly complex large-molecule medicines that cannot be easily produced.

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In order to get investors interested, SpringLeaf needed to get its hands on a large-molecule drug that had already been through the regulatory gamut so that its novel delivery system would greatly improve that mature drug by giving patients greater convenience and control and thus boosting sales of the combination.

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Second, large drug companies are trying to avoid traditional small molecule drugs that will face large generic uptake after their patents expire.

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It seems to be particularly important for the growth and survival of some cancer cells and large amounts of the molecule are often present in the cells of non-small cell lung cancers, sometimes in a mutated, over-active form.

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Similar expirations have spawned a large generic industry around so-called small-molecule drugs and the same can occur for genetically engineered products that are proprietary and highly profitable today, Konski said.

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Small enough to fit in the bed of a large pickup truck, the Ferrator strips electrons from iron atoms to make ferrate--an unstable molecule that bonds to and neutralizes heavy metals, phosphates and bacteria.

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