× Medicines Discovery Catapult

How to get your molecule into humans

Understanding the main reasons for delay and maximising the opportunities available to improve the efficiency of the transition to first-in-man clinical trials are paramount to the success of a drug development programme. The ultimate aim for a non-clinical program is to ensure the safety of the clinical trial subjects but, to improve the efficiency of […]

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Making safety part of drug design

The importance of safety in the drug discovery process The aims of safety in the drug discovery process are to develop an effective new medicine which can be given to patients quickly and safely. Studies have shown that clinical development attrition rates are high. A study analysing over 7,000 development programs with nearly 10,000 clinical […]

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Meet Isabel Peset-Martin – Senior Scientist (Advanced Microscopy)

Which team do you work in and what does that team do? I work in the Molecular Technologies team within Discovery. We apply new technologies for drug discovery and biomarker research. Our role is to collaborate with SMEs and academics to find novel approaches to help in the development of new drugs. What’s your role […]

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Go Native…Characterising therapeutic effect in primary cellular models

Clinical attrition due to lack of clinical efficacy during development remains an issue and can in part be attributed to inadequate pre-clinical target validation and/or suitable clinical translation data. Using relevant preclinical cell-based models can help ensure the clinical validity of the target & therapeutic effects prior to clinical efficacy studies and ensure a better understanding of […]

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Strategies for target and pathway engagement in cellular assays

The importance of target engagement studies Key to the target validation process and improving clinical attrition is testing the biological hypothesis. It is important to establish if a lack of efficacy is due to the compound not engaging with the intended target or alternatively, engaging with the target but the target not modifying the disease […]

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Use of preclinical models to deliver proof of concept efficacy

Sygnature Discovery is a leading independent provider of integrated drug discovery and pre-clinical resource and expertise. Sygnature offer fully integrated discovery project support, as well as discipline-specific support in medicinal and computational chemistry, bioscience, DMPK, in vitro pharmacology, and in vivo pharmacology, as needed by their collaborating clients. Sygnature’s primary focus is value creation for […]

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Principles and modelling of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic relationships

Mathematical modelling is currently hard to avoid due to headlines regarding COVID-19. Models are being used to predict situations such as the worlds response to COVID-19, how many will die globally from the pandemic, etc., and not all the headlines are complimentary. At the start of COVID-19, these models were simple models based mainly on […]

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Understanding PK/PD using pre-clinical models

Axis Bioservices is a preclinical contract research organisation based in Northern Ireland, providing services in oncology, inflammation, and respiratory disease. The company specialise in in vitro efficacy and mechanistic studies through to in vivo target engagement. Value of PK-PD studies to maximise pre-clinical efficacy Preclinical pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) analysis looking at dose-response relationships of exposure, and […]

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Evaluation of clinical and pre-clinical pharmacodynamic endpoints using non-invasive imaging modalities

Preclinical and clinical imaging endpoints can be used for key decision making throughout drug development through to regulatory approval and are essential to the drug development process. Pharmacodynamics and imaging In pharmacodynamics, imaging offers a non-invasive opportunity to visualise and quantify clinical response to a drug. In oncology trials, PD endpoints can be used as […]

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