Functional imaging and the pharmaceutical industry

Functional imaging contributes to the acquisition of fundamental biomedical knowledge, to routine patient management and to clinical research, includi ng drug development. Functional imaging may ultimately makes its greatest i mpact in the context of drug development. Whilst nuclear medicine, includin g single-photon gamma camera imaging and, increasingly, positron emission t omography, is still the most important functional imaging technique, other radiological techniques, including magnetic resonance imaging, computerised tomography and functionally targeted ultrasonography, are all gaining grou nd. Within the context of drug development, functional imaging may be used to address questions in relation to 1) basic mechanism of disease; 2) pharm acokinetics of new drugs; 3) assessment and quantification of drug efficacy ; 4) mechanism of drug action; and 5) the identification of patients most l ikely to respond to a specific drug. Within the interests of the pharmaceut ical industry, the pathologic subgroups most extensively studied are likely to include inflammatory disease, oncology, vascular disease and neuropsych iatric disorders. In order to most effectively exploit functional imaging i n drug development, pharmaceutical companies should become more closely ass ociated with academic imaging institutions and with imaging experts who are encouraged to retain their academic affiliations.