wwPDB — 4 sites, 50+ years, $23B replacement, 100% of 34 cancer drugs 2019-2023

The Protein Data Bank has operated since 1971. Since 2003, four wwPDB partner sites — RCSB PDB (US), PDBe (UK), PDBj (Japan), and BMRB (Wisconsin) — have maintained synchronized copies of the complete archive of over 250,000 experimentally determined 3D structures, with estimated replacement cost ~$23 billion (S-0013).

100% of 34 new United States Food and Drug Administration-approved low-molecular-weight, protein-targeted cancer drugs between 2019 and 2023 relied on Protein Data Bank data (S-0081). 88% of 210 new drug approvals 2010-2016 had structural coverage from PDB structures (S-0013a).

The PDB has been continuously preserved for over 50 years; four-site weekly synchronization has secured the present $23 billion archive since 2003.

The case is one of the strongest empirical anchors for Tier 2 working: half a century of continuity, $23B in scientific capital, downstream impact saturating new drug approvals. It is also the strongest empirical anchor for the C-0029 argument: this level of preservation is available to one structural-biology community because that community could afford and organize the consortium. The same architecture is not available to most of research, which is why the C-0002 baseline persists.