Mar.Drugs 2014,12 1074 3.3.Market Challenges Finally the commercial and market issues are very relevant and most of the times disregarded in the natural product development programs.Since the very early stages of the development programs. several very important questions must be addressed by the researchers or the companies:(i)what are the potential industry applications and the market need of that particular activity;(ii)what is the target price/kg of the final bioactive (i)what is the formulation desired and the route of administration (iv)what is the manufacturing process and how sustainable is the supply:(v)how can the product reach the market value chain.The high number of NP hits and leads coming out of the HTS technologies has stressed out the need for a focused strategy on this field.Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's)have a commercialization goal and,therefore,introduce very early on their discovery and development programs the issues indicated earlier.It is crucial for them to have a clearly defined strategy,otherwise the risk of failing and running out of cash fast is high.It is important to be aware that the cost of technology and manufacturing processes,sometimes with poo yields,raises the market cost per kilogram and may render these products economically unviable.This is particularly true in personal care industry where recombinant technologies are not acceptable and the profit margins are too small to introduce very expensive ingredients per pack.Recently,academia has started to be more aware of the "market issues as it became obvious that most of the discoveries on the NP pipeline where barely reaching the market and consumers.This has been partially achieved by serious encouragement of industry-academia partnerships,both at national and transnational levels that went beyond the traditional funding by the industry of small research projects of academia.These alliances benefit both partners that work side-by-side,with a common set of goals and in a win-win collaboration system.Academia gets knowledge.publications and funding and industry gets new NP with higher probabilities of market success. Bearing in mind all the challenges just pointed out,NP developers can thrive to find better models of development to surpass or minimize their impact. 4.Marketed Marine Natural Products.Examples of Success Stories The Marine Board of the European Science Foundation has published a position paper in which it provides a roadmap for European research in Marine Biotechnology and sets out an ambitious scienc and policy agenda for the next decade [66].Development of novel drugs,treatments and health and personal care products,is one of the five research areas prioritized in this document that can greatly contribute to key societal challenges An overview of marine drugs and cosmeceuticals that successfully reached the market is the focus of next section.Hopefully,the analysis of the issues related with their development will allow a deeper understanding of the key factors behind their success 4.1.Pharmaceutical Applications As pointed earlier,natural product screening remains one of the most useful avenues for bioactive discovery.In the past decades,studies on MNP have been focused mainly on macroorganisms,i.e., sponges,corals and other marine invertebrates,although significant developments have been made in Mar. Drugs 2014, 12 1074 3.3. Market Challenges Finally the commercial and market issues are very relevant and most of the times disregarded in the natural product development programs. Since the very early stages of the development programs, several very important questions must be addressed by the researchers or the companies: (i) what are the potential industry applications and the market need of that particular activity; (ii) what is the target price/kg of the final bioactive; (iii) what is the formulation desired and the route of administration; (iv) what is the manufacturing process and how sustainable is the supply; (v) how can the product reach the market value chain. The high number of NP hits and leads coming out of the HTS technologies has stressed out the need for a focused strategy on this field. Small and Medium Enterprises (SME‘s) have a commercialization goal and, therefore, introduce very early on their discovery and development programs the issues indicated earlier. It is crucial for them to have a clearly defined strategy, otherwise the risk of failing and running out of cash fast is high. It is important to be aware that the cost of technology and manufacturing processes, sometimes with poor yields, raises the market cost per kilogram and may render these products economically unviable. This is particularly true in personal care industry where recombinant technologies are not acceptable and the profit margins are too small to introduce very expensive ingredients per pack. Recently, academia has started to be more aware of the ―market issues‖ as it became obvious that most of the discoveries on the NP pipeline where barely reaching the market and consumers. This has been partially achieved by serious encouragement of industry-academia partnerships, both at national and transnational levels that went beyond the traditional funding by the industry of small research projects of academia. These alliances benefit both partners that work side-by-side, with a common set of goals and in a win-win collaboration system. Academia gets knowledge, publications and funding and industry gets new NP with higher probabilities of market success. Bearing in mind all the challenges just pointed out, NP developers can thrive to find better models of development to surpass or minimize their impact. 4. Marketed Marine Natural Products. Examples of Success Stories The Marine Board of the European Science Foundation has published a position paper in which it provides a roadmap for European research in Marine Biotechnology and sets out an ambitious science and policy agenda for the next decade [66]. Development of novel drugs, treatments and health and personal care products, is one of the five research areas prioritized in this document that can greatly contribute to key societal challenges. An overview of marine drugs and cosmeceuticals that successfully reached the market is the focus of next section. Hopefully, the analysis of the issues related with their development will allow a deeper understanding of the key factors behind their success. 4.1. Pharmaceutical Applications As pointed earlier, natural product screening remains one of the most useful avenues for bioactive discovery. In the past decades, studies on MNP have been focused mainly on macroorganisms, i.e., sponges, corals and other marine invertebrates, although significant developments have been made in