STEPS IN THE PROCESS OF NEW DRUG DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This review determines the various stages of drug discovery, pre clinical trials and clinical trials. This process involves the identification of chemical compound, synthesis, characterization, validation, optimization, screening and assay for therapeutic efficacy. Once a new drug target or promising molecule has been identified the process of moving from the science laboratory to the pre clinical to clinical trials have been discussed in this article. The main aim of this process is identifying the chemical compound which is therapeutically useful in treating and curing the disease. The most common steps in the development of a new drug are discovery or synthesis of a potential new drug compound or elucidation of a new drug. Once a chemical compound has shown its therapeutic efficacy in these investigations, it will initiate the process of drug development earlier to clinical trials. The drug development from initial idea to the market is a very complex process which can take upto 5 to 10 years and cost of $17 billion. Due to high budget of research & development and clinical trials drug discovery process is the most expensive. The average time taken for the drug discovery is almost 12 -15 years to develop a single new compound and enter into market