Drug discovery and drug metabolism

The decision as to which chemical entity should progress to development as a drug candidate has, in the past, been based on relatively expensive preclinical efficacy and safety studies that have been performed in animals. This review presents a proposal to improve the efficiency of human drug development and increase the 'hit rate' of clinical candidates. The proposal is based on the concept that human drug metabolism strategies established early on in the drug development!drug discovery paradigm could lead to untenable candidates being discarded at an early stage in the drug development process. This strategy would tend to reduce costs and provide greater focus on those agents more likely to be successful as drug candidates.