New Approaches To Drug Discovery

This volume gives an overview of state of the art technologies and future developments in the field of preclinical pharmaceutical research. A balanced mix of experts from academia and industry give insight in selected new developments in the drug discovery pathway. The topics cover the different parts of the drug discovery process, starting with new developments in the target identification and validation area. The lead generation part as a next step focuses on the requirements and technologies to identify new small molecules as lead compounds for further optimization; in a second section the technologies to identify biologics as leads are addressed. The final part focuses on the pharmacological models and technologies to characterize new compounds and the impact of biomarkers to facilitate the transfer of drug candidates into the development phase.

Despite considerable technological advances, the pharmaceutical industry is experiencing a severe innovation deficit, especially in the discovery of new drugs. Innovative Approaches in Drug Discovery: Ethnopharmacology, Systems Biology and Holistic Targeting provides a critical review and analysis of health, disease and medicine, and explores possible reasons behind the present crisis in drug discovery. The authors illustrate the benefits of systems biology and pharmacogenomics approaches, and advocate the expansion from disease-centric discovery to person-centric therapeutics involving holistic, multi-target, whole systems approaches. This book lays a path for reigniting pharmaceutical innovation through a disciplined reemergence of pharmacognosy, embracing open innovation models and collaborative, trusted public-private partnerships. With unprecedented advances made in the development of biomedically-relevant tools and technologies, the need is great and the time is now for a renewed commitment towards expanding the repertoire of medicines. By incorporating real-life examples and state-of-the-art reviews, this book provides valuable insights into the discovery and development strategies for professionals, academicians, and students in the pharmaceutical sciences. Analyzes the reasons behind historical drug failures to provide valuable insights on lessons learned Uses current scientific research to promote learning from traditional knowledge systems and through the integration of traditional and western medicines Discusses advances in technologies and systems biology to support the transition from formulation discovery to therapeutic discovery

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.

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

Drug Discovery Approaches for the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Disorders: Alzheimer’s Disease examines the drug discovery process for neurodegenerative diseases by focusing specifically on Alzheimer’s Disease and illustrating the paradigm necessary to ensure future research and treatment success. The book explores diagnosis, epidemiology, drug discovery strategies, current therapeutics, and much more to provide a holistic approach to the discovery, development, and treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. Through its coverage of the latest research in targeted drug design, preclinical studies, and mouse and rat models, the book is a must-have resource for all pharmaceutical scientists, pharmacologists, neuroscientists, and clinical researchers working in this area. It illustrates why these drugs tend to fail at the clinical stage, and examines Alzheimer’s Disease within the overall context of improving the drug discovery process for the treatment of other neurodegenerative disorders. Provides a compilation of chemical considerations required in drug discovery for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders Examines different classes of compounds currently being used in discovery and development stages Explores in vitro and in vivo models with respect to their ability to translate these models to human conditions Distills the most significant information across multiple areas of Alzheimer’s disease research to provide a single, comprehensive, and balanced resource

Rare diseases collectively affect millions of Americans of all ages, but developing drugs and medical devices to prevent, diagnose, and treat these conditions is challenging. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends implementing an integrated national strategy to promote rare diseases research and product development.

This title covers a wide range of topics relevant to the development of drugs. It provides a comprehensive description of the major methodological strategies available for rational drug discovery.