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Oncology has a higher rate of attrition in clinical development than most other therapeutic areas. Lengauer and colleagues discuss the factors responsible, and suggest strategies to improve the chances of short-term success in the development of novel anticancer drugs.
For the past decade, the number of molecular targets for approved drugs has been debated. In this article and the accompanying poster, Overington and colleagues provide a comprehensive survey of current drug targets and a wealth of associated information on the characteristics of target families and the drugs that modulate them.
Existing guidance for the validation of biomarkers is subjective and prone to bias resulting from stakeholder interests. Williams and colleagues describe an approach in which biomarkers could be qualified according to their 'cost-effectiveness' using a set of 'good practice' principles.
What constitutes a drug target? Imming and colleagues consider this question, and by classifying known drug substances on the basis of the discussed principles, provide an estimation of the total number of current drug targets.
Pharmacological activity depends on the binding of drugs to their targets. Copelandet al. provide a perspective on the importance of residence time for lead optimization and describe the potential advantages of drugs with a long residence time, in terms of duration of pharmacological effects and selectivity.
Advancement in personalized medicine depends on concurrent innovation in diagnostics and therapeutics. To remain competitive, drug discovery companies must embrace the powerful combination of genetic information in drug-responders and diagnostics that identify patient sub-groups.
