New products — R&D

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Pharmaceutical development

It is during the basic research phase that new biological targets are sought and lead compounds with possible therapeutic values are identified. Once a compound shows real promise in treating a target disease, a patent application is made. During the pre-clinical stage or applied research stage of the development of a new chemical entity, extensive tests in animals determine effectiveness and toxicity, purity and stability of the new substance, and large-scale production methods are developed.

During this stage of biological and pharmacological screening, many drug candidates are eliminated as having undesirable side effects or prove impossible to formulate on a large scale. Large numbers of compounds will be discarded. It typically takes four to five years to reach a stage where pharmaceutical development is commenced. It is anticipated that the use of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics will have an increasingly important role to play in pharmaceutical industry R&D.