The pathologist and toxicologist in pharmaceutical product discovery

Significant change is occurring in the drug discovery paradigm; many compan ies are utilizing dedicated groups from the toxicology/pathology discipline s to support early stage activities. The goal is to improve the efficiency of the discovery process for selecting a successful clinical candidate. Tox icity can be predicted by leveraging molecular techniques via rapid high-th roughput, low-resource in vitro and in vivo test systems. Several important activities help create a platform to support rapid development of a new mo lecular entity. The proceedings of this symposium provide excellent example s of these applied concepts in pharmaceutical research and development. Lea ding biopharmaceutical companies recognize that a competitive advantage can be maintained via rapid characterization of animal models, the cellular id entification of therapeutic targets, and improved sensitivity of efficacy a ssessment. The participation of the molecular pathologist in this quest is evolving rapidly, as evidenced by the growing number of pathologists that i nteract with drug discovery organizations.