ABSTRACT
The development of a new medicinal product from a novel synthesised chemical compound, a chemical extracted from a natural source or a compound produced by biotechnological processes, is a long and complex process and involves many different disciplines working together. The drug discovery and development process for a typical research-based pharmaceutical company can be broken down into five distinct stages as described briefly below. At each stage, there will be several activities running in parallel, with the overall objective of discovering a candidate drug and developing it to market as efficiently as possible. It should be noted that different companies may use slightly different terminology and perform some activities sooner or later, but the overall process is essentially the same.
