ABSTRACT
Drug discovery is a challenging and extremely expensive game played by global companies all over the world. Since most of the companies are involved in several mergers creating
pharma giants, the number of players decreases. One of the major reasons for resource integration is the increasing R&D cost of a new drug. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s Association reported an increase from $4 million to over $350 million during 34 years between 1962 and 1996. On the other hand, development time from the first synthesis to launch has almost quadrupled during this period. Rational drug design – in combination with experimental techniques – is a potential tool to increase efficiency in early phase development and therefore it has been widely applied in drug discovery programs.
