A Guide to Early Drug Discovery
Building Confidence in Drug Candidates
Will be published approx. on 30. September 2026
Book
Hardback
978-1-009-30046-9 (ISBN)
Description
Modern early drug discovery is transforming in response to global health challenges, medical needs, and emerging technologies. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art and practical guidance for navigating the complexities of early drug discovery. Edited by experienced industry professionals, it features expert contributions from scientists committed to advancing more effective medicines. Readers gain extensive coverage of today's landscape and its future evolution, including drug target systems, therapeutic modalities, candidate optimization and safety, translational approaches, and the role of external innovation in driving pharmaceutical productivity. Designed for scientists, researchers, and stakeholders across biotech, pharma, and academia, the book delivers actionable insights while fostering collaboration and understanding across disciplines. Drug discovery is inherently collaborative, and shared learning across specialties increases success. This resource offers future-focused, experience-driven guidance for anyone seeking to contribute to the development of impactful new therapies.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-30046-9 (9781009300469)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Introduction Mohammed Shahid; Preface; Modern drug discovery: factors shaping the current and future landscape Mohammed Shahid, James Baker and Jayashree Aiyar; Part I. Drug Target: Linking Fundamental Biology to Disease Mohammed Shahid, M. Emani, G. Starling, J. Aiyar: 1. Target identification and preclinical validation Kati Raesaenen; 2. The impact of translational biomarkers on drug discovery and development Donald Apanovitch and William Cairns; 3. Translational animal models: lessons from psychiatric disease Jennifer Fletcher, Ben Grayson and Michael Harte; 4. Quantitative systems biology and pharmacology Jess Wu, Tomoki Yoneyama and Dean BottinoI; 5. Flourishing landscape of therapeutic categories: how to select and characterize drug modalities Jerome Hochman; Part II. Discovery and Early Development of Small Molecule Drug Candidates Mohammed Shahid and J. Aiyar: 6. From classical to innovative screening approaches: bridging the gap to efficiently discover chemical starting points Benjamin Bader, Volker Badock, Joerg Weiske, Martina Schaefer, Anselm Schneider, Vera Puetter, Simon Holton, Martin Lange and Holger Steuber; 7. New developments in medicinal chemistry approaches for drug candidate identification Leena Otsomaa and Olli Tormakangas; 8. Application and impact of generative artificial intelligence in early drug discovery Cheng Fang and Torsten Herbertz; Part III. Discovery and Early Development of Biologics G. Starling and Emani; 9. Advances in therapeutic antibody discovery: from in vivo to in vitro and beyond Lei Chen, Jane Seagal and Chung-Ming Hsieh; 10. Creation of biologics therapeutics with drug-like properties - design, optimization, and developability Laurence Fayadat-Dilman; 11. Next generation biologics - multi-specifics, antibody drug conjugates and drugging difficult targets Rebecca Chen, Zhiping Jiang, Haili Zhang, Fan Yang and Javier Chaparro-Riggers; 12. Living cells as therapeutics Gary Starling; Part IV. Preclinical Adme and Safety J. Baker: 13. The evolution of small molecule pk optimisation Simon Taylor, Barry Jones and James Baker; 14. Therapeutic proteins - pk design considerations Sher Karki, Nicole Rodriguez, Panida Lertkiatmongkol and Shelley Sims Belouski; 15. Gene therapy - what is the role of DMPK in this modality? Guanrong Huang, Shobha Purushothama and Stephen Wang; 16. The application of translational PKPD modelling in drug discovery James W. T. Yates; 17. Pharmaceutical development across modalities in drug discovery Courtney David, Jing Ling and Olivier Mozziconacci; 18. Approaches to identify safe drugs across modalities Claudette L. Fuller, Lisa M. Plitnick and Alan H. Stokes; Part V. External Innovation Shahid Mohammed and Jayashree Aiyer: 19. Drug discovery and the benefit of public private partnerships, a solution to drive innovation in women's health? Marcel van Duin; 20. Governmental initiatives to boost progress and industry output: impact of the innovative medicines initiative Elisabetta Vaudano and Hugh Laverty; 21. Inventions to application: power of knowledge transfer Jack Findlay and Anji Milleri; 22. Harnessing innovation and delivering added value: view from the biotech venture capital world Sham Nikan and Narayanan 'Suri' Surendranb; 23. The evolution and future prospects of the contract research organisation (CRO) sector Brian McFerran and Stuart McElroy; Glossary and Index.