Biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics in drug research

With the synergistic and multiplicative interactions of rational drug desig n, recombinant biotechnology, combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput s creening, millions of compounds are being synthesized by chemists. However. development of these drug candidates has often been impeded, if not termin ated, due to biopharmaceutic and/or pharmacokinetic constraints. This has r esulted in delays in development time and escalation of cost in the drug re search programmes. So, the present emphasis is to reduce development time a nd cost, which is analogous to added patent life besides the enormous reduc tion in human suffering. In this compilation the important biopharmaceutic and pharmacokinetic approaches are discussed, which will help in the develo pment of safe and more efficacious drugs with reduced development time and cost. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.