Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal (Jan 2024)

A comprehensive review of discovery and development of drugs discovered from 2020–2022

  • Usman Shareef,
  • Aisha Altaf,
  • Madiha Ahmed,
  • Nosheen Akhtar,
  • Mohammed S. Almuhayawi,
  • Soad K. Al Jaouni,
  • Samy Selim,
  • Mohamed A. Abdelgawad,
  • Mohammed K. Nagshabandi

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 32, no. 1
p. 101913

Abstract

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To fully evaluate and define the new drug molecule for its pharmacological characteristics and toxicity profile, pre-clinical and clinical studies are conducted as part of the drug research and development process. The average time required for all drug development processes to finish various regulatory evaluations ranges from 11.4 to 13.5 years, and the expense of drug development is rising quickly. The development in the discovery of newer novel treatments is, however, largely due to the growing need for new medications. Methods to identify Hits and discovery of lead compounds along with pre-clinical studies have advanced, and one example is the introduction of computer-aided drug design (CADD), which has greatly shortened the time needed for the drug to go through the drug discovery phases. The pharmaceutical industry will hopefully be able to address the present and future issues and will continue to produce novel molecular entities (NMEs) to satisfy the expanding unmet medical requirements of the patients as the success rate of the drug development processes is increasing. Several heterocyclic moieties have been developed and tested against many targets and proved to be very effective. In-depth discussion of the drug design approaches of newly found drugs from 2020 to 2022, including their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles and in-vitro and in-vivo assessments, is the main goal of this review. Considering the many stages these drugs are going through in their clinical trials, this investigation is especially pertinent. It should be noted that synthetic strategies are not discussed in this review; instead, they will be in a future publication.

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