Efforts to Improve Efficiency of Drug Discovery Expected to Grow Early Toxicology Market by More Than $500 Million by 2010

August 09, 2007 (PRLEAP.COM) Health News
New York, August 9, 2007 — With pharmaceutical companies desperate to develop new technologies that will decrease drug development costs and screen out toxic compounds during the discovery or development stages of new drugs, Kalorama Information expects both pharmas and suppliers to grow the early toxicology market from $947 million to $1.52 billion by 2010, according to its new report, Early Toxicology: Markets and Approaches.

Twenty years ago, toxicology was measured after a drug was developed. The tests were expensive and time-consuming, and they were performed only on drug candidates that had already passed all other criteria to become successful drugs. Although current early toxicology testing approaches—including in-silico, in-vitro, and in-vivo—detect unfavorable toxicity in drugs earlier, they seldom provide a complete answer about a compound’s toxicity when used individually.

Toxic side-effects are one of the most common reasons drug candidates fail. They are also the most challenging aspect of a drug to screen. Toxicity cannot be contained by a single parameter or even a group of parameters, and it can vary from organ to organ and from one species to another.

“Toxicology determinations are an integral part of all aspects of drug discovery and development,” said Steven Heffner, Executive Publisher of Kalorama Information. “Although there is currently no single winning approach to determining early toxicity, pharmas continue to apply fresh approaches, looking for tools that have better predictive value. New assays for high-content screening, better ways to do electrophysiology, and new applications for genomics will all play important roles in this ongoing quest.”

In addition to discussions of various big pharma approaches to early toxicology testing and views of interviewed experts in the field, Early Toxicology: Markets and Approaches examines the current and emerging technologies and techniques, issues, and opportunities related to early toxicology testing in drug discovery. It includes current and projected market analysis for in-silico, in-vitro, and in-vivo early toxicology products and provides detailed profiles of key companies in the market.

This report can be purchased directly from Kalorama Information by visiting http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Early-Toxicology-Approaches-1300095. It is also available at MarketResearch.com.

About Kalorama Information
Kalorama Information supplies the latest in independent market research on medical markets. For more information, contact Tom Ehart at 240-747-3014 or tehart@marketresearch.com, or visit www.KaloramaInformation.com.