Drug discovery failure

A time-and-motion modeling mind-set can easily blinker analysis of how best to improve the value created by research. Truly useful simulations of drug discovery must go beyond simplistic assumptions about yields at stage gates and address the causes of failure, starting to quantify the common concept of pipeline quality. ... 

It is only during the past few years that the importance of the metabolic and pharmacokinetic behavior of drug molecules in the drug discovery process has been recognized. One of the causes for failure in drug development is the lack of suitable pharmacokinetic properties of drug candidates. At the same time, the development... 

The drug discovery and development processes are time consuming and costly endeavors. It has been reported that on average it takes 10 to 15 years and costs more than 800 million to bring a molecule from discovery to market.12 Compounds fail for various reasons. One that accounts for a reported 40% of failures in clinical trials is poor pharmacokinetics.3 In an effort to improve the number of compounds that exhibit optimal absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination (ADME), and pharmacokinetic (PK) properties and reach development, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic scientists continually implement new technologies and compound screening approaches. 

Sources (1) Natesh R, Schwager SL, Sturrock ED, Acharya KR. Crystal structure of the human angiotensin-converting enzyme-lisinopril complex, Nature 421 551-554 (2003). Used with permission. (2) Turk B. Targeting proteases, successes, failures and future prospects. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 5 785-799 (2006). 

The business model of the innovative pharmaceutical industry is to transform the results of basic medical research into products that provide health benefits to the patient. This model is characterized by a high risk of failure in the development of new products, coupled with the benefit of market exclusivity for a number of years if a product can be successfully developed and is approved by the regulatory agencies. Only very few chemical entities complete the development process from drug discovery to a commercial product. But those products that do reach the marketplace have to yield sufficient financial rewards to assure that the... 

From a historical point of view, the research axes of the pharmaceutical industry have shifted away from acute and more toward chronic pathology solutions. The drug discovery technologies have evolved in parallel because the cost of the research linked to the failure rate has increased with the complexity of the pathology of interest. As a consequence, in order to enhance research... 

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