Yet Stefansson's principal goal has always been to use the genome to inform the development of better drugs. Years before precision medicine became a common term, he wanted to provide its foundation : to find and validate drug targets rooted in disease pathways rather than rely on trial and error in medicinal chemistry, and to be able to test and prescribe drugs for patients likely to respond well.  This addresses longstanding productivity challenges in drug development and Stefansson has funded the company principally by partnering with pharmaceutical companies. A $200 million gene and target discovery deal with Roche in 1998 was an early sign of the industry's interest in genomics to make better drugs.  Other partnerships were formed with Merck, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca and others. In the mid-2000s the company brought several of its own compounds into clinical development but did not have the financial resources to continue their development after its insolvency and restructuring in 2009.  