Kramer JA, Sagartz JE, Morris DL. The application of discovery toxicology and pathology towards the design of safer pharmaceutical lead candidates.
Nat Rev Drug Discov 2007;
6:636-49. [PMID:
17643090 DOI:
10.1038/nrd2378]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 208] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Toxicity is a leading cause of attrition at all stages of the drug development process. The majority of safety-related attrition occurs preclinically, suggesting that approaches to identify 'predictable' preclinical safety liabilities earlier in the drug development process could lead to the design and/or selection of better drug candidates that have increased probabilities of becoming marketed drugs. In this Review, we discuss how the early application of preclinical safety assessment--both new molecular technologies as well as more established approaches such as standard repeat-dose rodent toxicology studies--can identify predictable safety issues earlier in the testing paradigm. The earlier identification of dose-limiting toxicities will provide chemists and toxicologists the opportunity to characterize the dose-limiting toxicities, determine structure-toxicity relationships and minimize or circumvent adverse safety liabilities.
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