Biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics in drug research

Abstract

With the synergistic and multiplicative interactions of rational drug design, recombinant biotechnology, combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening, millions of compounds are being synthesized by chemists. However, development of these drug candidates has often been impeded, if not terminated, due to biopharmaceutic and:or pharmacokinetic constraints. This has resulted in delays in development time and escalation of cost in the drug research programmes. So, the present emphasis is to reduce development time and cost, which is analogous to added patent life besides the enormous reduction in human suffering. In this compilation the important biopharmaceutic and pharmacokinetic approaches are discussed, which will help in the development of safe and more efficacious drugs with reduced development time and cost. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.