Pharmaceutical Profiling In Drug Discovery For Lead Selection

This volume focuses on how to increase the efficiency of drug discovery and development. It is written by experienced discovery scientists from diverse disciplines, including chemistry, drug metabolism, and development sciences. The volume details in silico, in vitro, and in vivo tools for prediction, measurement, and application of compound properties to select and improve potential drug candidates.

This book arises from a workshop organized by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists entitled "Optimizing the Drug-Like Properties of Leads in Drug Discovery," which took place in Parsippany, NJ in September 2004. The workshop focused on the optimization of the drug-like properties of leads in drug discovery. The volume outlines strategies and methodologies designed to guide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through the drug discovery and development process.

The only reference on current methods to generate pharmacokinetic and safety profiles of drug candidates, as well as how they must be balanced against one other for the best selection of candidates for further development. Following a brief introduction to the necessities of filtering and risk assessment of potential new drug molecules before actual drug development, the two equally important aspects of pharmacological (ADME) and safety (toxicity) profiling are covered in separate parts. The ADME section covers the profiling of basic physicochemical parameters, such as solubility and permeability, as well as more complex traits, such as the likelihood of drug-drug interactions, metabolic clearance and protein binding properties. The toxicology part addresses, among others, recent advances in early genetic toxicity testing, bioactivation screening, organ-specific toxicity assays for liver, heart, kidney and blood, as well as profiling for autoimmune reactions. By addressing both drug efficiency and drug safety, this modern practical reference shows readers how each individual aspect figures in shaping the key decisions on which the entire drug development process hinges. In short, this is a complete toolbox for assessing the risk/benefit ratio for any novel compound during the early drug development stages, using both in vitro and in silico methods. Both editors are based at one of the leading research-driven pharmaceutical companies, and the authors have been recruited from numerous other global players in the field. Invaluable know-how for every medicinal chemist and drug developer.

The drug discovery and development process is getting longer, more expensive, and no better. The industry suffers from the same clinical attrition and safety-related market withdrawal rates today as it did 20 years ago. Industrialization of Drug Discovery: From Target Selection Through Lead Optimization scrutinizes these problems in detail, contrasting the promise of technology and industrialization with the challenges of using the tools available to their best advantage. The book explores early successes, examines the current state of the art, and provides a strategic analysis of the issues currently facing drug discovery. Introducing the historical background and current status of the industry, the book delineates the basic tenets underlying modern drug discovery, how they have evolved, and their use in various approaches and strategies. It examines, in detail, the regulations, requirements, guidelines, and draft documents that guide so many FDA actions. The editor devotes the remainder of the discussion to industrialization, compound and knowledge management functions, the drug screening process, collaboration, and finally, ethical issues. Drawing on real-life, from-the-trenches examples, the book elucidates a new approach to drug discovery and development. This modern-day, back-to-basics approach includes three steps: understand the science, unravel the story, and then intelligently apply the technology, bringing to bear the entire armamentarium of industrialization techniques, not just automation, to the discovery process. Using these steps, you can meet the goals of more specific targets, more selective compounds, and decreased cycle times. In effect, you can look for a bigger needle in a smaller haystack. Daniel E. Levy, editor of the Drug Discovery Series, is the founder of DEL BioPharma, a consulting service for drug discovery programs. He also maintains a blog that explores organic chemistry.

High quality leads provide the foundation for the discovery of successful clinical development candidates, and therefore the identi?cation of leads is an essential part of drug discovery. The process for the identi?cation of leads generally starts with the screening of a compound collection, either an HTS of a relatively large compound collection (hundreds of thousands to one million plus compounds) or a more focused screen of a smaller set of compounds that have been preselected for the target of interest. Virtual screening methods such as structure-based or pharmacophore-based searches can complement or replace one of the above approaches. Once hits are identi?ed from one or more of these screening methods, they need to be thoroughly characterized in order to con?rm activity and identify areas in need of optimization. Finally, once fully characterized hits are identi?ed, preliminary optimization through synthetic modi?cation is carried out to generate leads. Parallel optimization of all properties, including biological, physicochemical, and ADME is the most ef?cient approach to the identi?cation of leads. Hit characterization is described in the previous chapter. The focus of this chapter is on hit optimization and the identi?- tion of leads. After a general overview of these processes, examples taken from the literature since 2001 will be used to illustrate speci?c points. There are also a number of excellent reviews covering the lead identi?cation process [1–6].

An integrated overview of modern approaches to lead discovery Lead generation is increasingly seen as a distinct and success-determining phase of the drug discovery process. Over recent years, there have been major advances in the understanding of what constitutes a good lead compound and how to improve the chances of finding such a compound. Written by leading scientists and established opinion leaders from industry and academia, this book provides an authoritative overview of the field, as well as the theory, practice, and scope, of the principal Lead Generation Approaches in Drug Discovery, including: The evolution of the lead discovery process, key concepts, current challenges, and future directions Strategies and technologies driving the high-throughput screening (HTS) approach to lead discovery, including the shifting paradigms in the design of compound collections and best practice in the hit confirmation process Knowledge-based in silico or "virtual" screening Theory and practice of the fragment-based approach to lead discovery The opportunities and challenges presented by multi-target drug discovery (MTDD) De novo design of lead compounds and new approaches to estimating the synthetic accessibility of de novo–designed molecules The impact of natural products on drug discovery, and potential of natural product–like compounds for exploring regions of biologically relevant chemical space Using early screening of hits and leads for metabolic, pharmacokinetic, and toxicological liabilities to reduce attrition during the later phases of drug discovery The utility of parallel synthesis and purification in lead discovery With each topic supported by numerous case studies, this is indispensable reading for researchers in industry and academia who wish to keep up to date with the latest strategies and approaches in drug discovery.

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

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.