Modern Methods Of Drug Discovery

Research in the pharmaceutical industry today is in many respects quite different from what it used to be only fifteen years ago. There have been dramatic changes in approaches for identifying new chemical entities with a desired biological activity. While chemical modification of existing leads was the most important approach in the 1970s and 1980s, high-throughput screening and structure-based design are now major players among a multitude of methods used in drug discov ery. Quite often, companies favor one of these relatively new approaches over the other, e.g., screening over rational design, or vice versa, but we believe that an intelligent and concerted use of several or all methods currently available to drug discovery will be more successful in the medium term. What has changed most significantly in the past few years is the time available for identifying new chemical entities. Because of the high costs of drug discovery projects, pressure for maximum success in the shortest possible time is higher than ever. In addition, the multidisciplinary character of the field is much more pronounced today than it used to be. As a consequence, researchers and project managers in the pharmaceutical industry should have a solid knowledge of the more important methods available to drug discovery, because it is the rapidly and intelligently combined use of these which will determine the success or failure of preclinical projects.

Basic Principles of Drug Discovery and Development presents the multifaceted process of identifying a new drug in the modern era, which requires a multidisciplinary team approach with input from medicinal chemists, biologists, pharmacologists, drug metabolism experts, toxicologists, clinicians, and a host of experts from numerous additional fields. Enabling technologies such as high throughput screening, structure-based drug design, molecular modeling, pharmaceutical profiling, and translational medicine are critical to the successful development of marketable therapeutics. Given the wide range of disciplines and techniques that are required for cutting edge drug discovery and development, a scientist must master their own fields as well as have a fundamental understanding of their collaborator’s fields. This book bridges the knowledge gaps that invariably lead to communication issues in a new scientist’s early career, providing a fundamental understanding of the various techniques and disciplines required for the multifaceted endeavor of drug research and development. It provides students, new industrial scientists, and academics with a basic understanding of the drug discovery and development process. The fully updated text provides an excellent overview of the process and includes chapters on important drug targets by class, in vitro screening methods, medicinal chemistry strategies in drug design, principles of in vivo pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, animal models of disease states, clinical trial basics, and selected business aspects of the drug discovery process. Provides a clear explanation of how the pharmaceutical industry works, as well as the complete drug discovery and development process, from obtaining a lead, to testing the bioactivity, to producing the drug, and protecting the intellectual property Includes a new chapter on the discovery and development of biologics (antibodies proteins, antibody/receptor complexes, antibody drug conjugates), a growing and important area of the pharmaceutical industry landscape Features a new section on formulations, including a discussion of IV formulations suitable for human clinical trials, as well as the application of nanotechnology and the use of transdermal patch technology for drug delivery Updated chapter with new case studies includes additional modern examples of drug discovery through high through-put screening, fragment-based drug design, and computational chemistry

Modern Methods of Drug Design and Development, a volume in the Methods in Enzymology series highlights new advances in the field with this new volume presenting interesting chapters on a variety of topics, including Recombinant protein purification for structural and kinetic studies, Steady-state kinetic analysis of reversible enzyme inhibitors, Steady-State Enzyme Kinetics, Analysis of enzyme kinetic data using ICEKAT, NMR techniques in drug discovery, Dynamic simulations and pre-steady state kinetics to guide drug discovery, Design and assay of substrate-product analogues for racemases and epimerases, Sensitive high throughput methods to screen for P450 inhibition: A- MI complex forming drugs, and more. Other chapters cover Sensitive high throughput methods to screen for P450 inhibition: B-Heme loss causing drugs, Discovery and development of inhibitors of acetyltransferase Eis to combat Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Crystallographic fragment screening in academic cancer drug discovery, Fast fragment- and compound-screening pipeline at the Swiss Light Source, Chemical biology, enzymology and drug discovery, PROTACs, Proximity-Induced Pharmacology (PROTACs), and much more. Provides the authority and expertise of leading contributors from an international board of authors Presents the latest release in the Methods in Enzymology series Updated release includes the latest information on Modern Methods of Drug Design and Development

The number of available synthetic methods can be overwhelming. In order to create novel motifs and templates which confer new and potentially valuable drug-like properties, it is important to know which synthetic methodologies will give the best results. Similarly, which methodologies are used to progress potential drug candidates from leads through the development process? What are the current industrial research problems and how can they be resolved in an industrial setting? This book highlights key methods that have real impact in drug discovery and facilitate delivery of drug molecules. Synthetic Methods in Drug Discovery Volume 1 focuses on the hugely important area of transition metal mediated methods used in industry. Current methods of importance such as the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling, Buchwald-Hartwig couplings and CH activation are discussed. In addition, exciting emerging areas such as decarboxylative coupling, and the uses of iron and nickel in coupling reactions are also covered. This book provides both academic and industrial perspectives on some key reactions giving the reader an excellent overview of the techniques used in modern synthesis. Reaction types are conveniently framed in the context of their value to industry and the challenges and limitations of methodologies are discussed with relevant illustrative examples. Edited and authored by leading scientists from both academia and industry, this book will be a valuable reference for all chemists involved in drug discovery as well as postgraduate students in medicinal chemistry.

Improving and Accelerating Therapeutic Development for Nervous System Disorders is the summary of a workshop convened by the IOM Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders to examine opportunities to accelerate early phases of drug development for nervous system drug discovery. Workshop participants discussed challenges in neuroscience research for enabling faster entry of potential treatments into first-in-human trials, explored how new and emerging tools and technologies may improve the efficiency of research, and considered mechanisms to facilitate a more effective and efficient development pipeline. There are several challenges to the current drug development pipeline for nervous system disorders. The fundamental etiology and pathophysiology of many nervous system disorders are unknown and the brain is inaccessible to study, making it difficult to develop accurate models. Patient heterogeneity is high, disease pathology can occur years to decades before becoming clinically apparent, and diagnostic and treatment biomarkers are lacking. In addition, the lack of validated targets, limitations related to the predictive validity of animal models - the extent to which the model predicts clinical efficacy - and regulatory barriers can also impede translation and drug development for nervous system disorders. Improving and Accelerating Therapeutic Development for Nervous System Disorders identifies avenues for moving directly from cellular models to human trials, minimizing the need for animal models to test efficacy, and discusses the potential benefits and risks of such an approach. This report is a timely discussion of opportunities to improve early drug development with a focus toward preclinical trials.

The very rapid pace of advances in biomedical research promises us a wide range of new drugs, medical devices, and clinical procedures. The extent to which these discoveries will benefit the public, however, depends in large part on the methods we choose for developing and testing them. Modern Methods of Clinical Investigation focuses on strategies for clinical evaluation and their role in uncovering the actual benefits and risks of medical innovation. Essays explore differences in our current systems for evaluating drugs, medical devices, and clinical procedures; health insurance databases as a tool for assessing treatment outcomes; the role of the medical profession, the Food and Drug Administration, and industry in stimulating the use of evaluative methods; and more. This book will be of special interest to policymakers, regulators, executives in the medical industry, clinical researchers, and physicians.