Candidate Selection

Candidate selection is a pivotal step in the drug discovery process, marking the transition from preclinical research to clinical development.

Our multidisciplinary team use their extensive knowledge to select the drug candidates with the greatest chance of successfully translating to human clinical trials. Chemists and biologist work in parallel with the joint objective of de-risking your candidate as early as possible saving both time and money.

Early route design for effective candidate selection

Our chemistry team is always thinking multiple steps ahead in the development and selection of lead compounds. Process research and medicinal chemists come together to consider the most efficient route well in advance of scale up and potential GMP manufacture. When faced with multiple compounds to choose from they consider safety and efficacy alongside the number of synthetic steps required ensuring it is financially viable.

Target and therapeutic expertise in biological testing

The additional benefit of this co-ordination is the production of material for essential biological testing to assess the pharmacology and toxicology of the compounds.  Our biologists use extensive target and therapeutic area expertise to identify off-target effects as soon as possible, further de-risking your project as early as possible.

Flexible and customized ADME services

Co-location of ADME with our chemistry and biology screening teams speeds up the analysis required to test the safety and efficacy of a candidate compound. Saving even small amounts of time at each stage of the drug discovery process can add up to considerable time and cost reductions. Our large team ha the flexibility to thoroughly examine the pharmacokinetic properties, including absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, are thoroughly examined. This ensures that the candidate can achieve and maintain the necessary concentration at the target site within the body.

Working with you through these stages ensures that the drug candidates move into the early stages of clinical development, typically starting with Phase I clinical trials.  

Find out how we can enhance candidate selection as part of an integrated drug discovery project.