Drug Discovery

From DrugPedia: A Wikipedia for Drug discovery

Drug Discovery is a process of identifying the new chemical compound that behaves as a drug like molecule.But this is a very slow process and may take around 7-8 years and large amount of money.For those engaged in drug design the research phase can be broken down into two main tasks: identification of new compounds showing some activity against a target biological receptor, and the progressive optimization of these leads to yield a compound with improved potency and physicochemical properties in vitro, and, eventually, improved efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and toxicological profiles in vivo.

The main aim of the insilico process is to reduce the cost and time involved in discovering a new drug molecule.for example

1. Instead of synthesis of a large number of compound in the lab and then study their activity ,use cheminformatics software like Chemdraw ,Hyperchem that will generate the structure of molecule and this reduce the time and money in drug discovery process.
2. Instead of using High throughput screening, use virtual screening methods.

Steps in Drug Discovery

1. Target Identification
2. Target validation
3. Screening
4. Lead optimization
5. ADME and Toxiology
6. Clinical Trials