Drug Discovery; a Process through Which Potential New Therapeutic Entities (Drugs) Are Identified

 

Drug Discovery 

Drug discovery is the process through which potential novel drugs are identified. The process involves many different stages and series of actions. Typically, it can be divided into four main stages: such as early drug discovery, pre-clinical phase, clinical phases, & regulatory approval. Despite advances in biotechnology and understanding of biological systems, drug discovery is still a lengthy, costly, and difficult process with high attrition rate of new therapeutic discovery. Drug design is a process of finding new drugs based on the knowledge of a biological target.

According to Coherent Market Insights the Drug Discovery Market Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2022-2028.

New insights regarding a disease allow researchers to design a drug to stop or reverse the effects of the disease. Once a lead compound is found, pre-clinical phase of drug development begins to determine the efficacy and safety of the drug. The goal of a pre-clinical drug discovery is to deliver one or more clinical candidate molecules, each with sufficient evidence of biological activity to a target relevant to the disease as well as adequate safety and drug-like properties, so that the drug can be entered into clinical phase (human trial).

Drug discovery is the process of identifying chemical entities that have the potential to become therapeutic agents that are capable of presenting unmet medical needs. Modern drug discovery involves the identification of screening hits, medicinal chemistry and optimization of those hits to increase the affinity, efficacy and potency, selectivity (to reduce potential of side effects), metabolic stability, and oral bioavailability. Whereas outsourced drug discovery is a contract-based procedure, which is conducted by the contract research organizations (CROs).

Drugs are used to prevent, diagnose, treat, and/or relieve symptoms of the disease, and thereby, there is an increasing demand for drugs, which in turn increase the practice of drug discovery. However, drugs are tested on people to make sure they are safe and effective. In the U.S., FDA thoroughly examine all of the submitted data related to the drug and make a decision to approve or not to approve it. Moreover, the FDA monitors all drug and device safety once products are available for use by the public.