Pharmacokinetic Challenges in Drug Discovery

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Despite increased spending on research and development, the number of new medicines marketed successfully continues to decline. The pharmaceutical industry is therefore focussing on ways to reduce attrition by addressing frequent reasons for clinical drug failures very early in the drug discovery process. One of the biggest challenges is the pharmacokinetic (PK) optimization of drug candidates tailored and predicted to have appropriate absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) characteristics in humans. This book describes how traditional pharmacokinetic approaches and methods are being re-invented to meet specific needs dictated by the dynamics of the drug discovery process. The book gives an overview of state-of-the-art tools, and their use in the decision-making process is discussed by a number of scientists from leading pharmaceutical companies.