“Drug development” is a professional term used to define the process of bringing a newly discovered drug or pharmaceutical device to market. The process includes drug discovery, chemistry and pharmacology, nonclinical safety testing, manufacturing, clinical trials, and regulatory submissions. Drug development is a lengthy process, with many drugs taking an average of 10 years to be developed and prepared to be introduced to market and made available to the general public. Luckily, numerous strategies have been developed in recent years that aim to reduce drug discovery time.
Common Strategies Include:
- High-throughput screening: This method uses automated techniques to screen large numbers of compounds quickly and efficiently, which can help identify potential drug candidates faster.
- Computer-aided drug design: This approach uses computational tools to predict the properties and behavior of potential drug candidates, which can help identify compounds that are more likely to be effective and have fewer side effects.
- Collaboration: Collaborating with other research groups, industry partners, and government agencies can help share resources and expertise, which can speed up the drug discovery and development process.
- Targeted drug development: By focusing on specific disease targets, the drug discovery process can be streamlined and targeted, which reduces the number of compounds that need to be screened and tested.
- Advancement in technologies: Advancements in technologies such as genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics can help to better understand the underlying biology of diseases, which can lead to the identification of new drug targets and the development of more effective drugs.
- Regulatory streamlining: Implementing a more efficient, flexible, and predictable regulatory process can help to speed up the approval process and reduce the time needed to bring new drugs to market.
- Repurposing existing drugs: Identifying new indications for existing drugs can help to speed up the drug development process, as these compounds have already been through safety and efficacy testing.
- Choosing the right process equipment can play a role in reducing new drug discovery time by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the drug discovery and development process. Furthermore, the use of advanced equipment for the production and formulation of the drug, can also help to speed up the development process by increasing the yield and purity of the drug substance and improving the stability, bioavailability and shelf-life of the final product.
Overall, a combination of these strategies can be used to reduce drug discovery and development time, while also increasing the chances of success.
Why Pion?
Pion's BEE brand High pressure homogenizers can play a role in reducing drug discovery and development time by enabling the production of nanoemulsions and liposomes, which can improve the bioavailability and efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs.
Nanoemulsions are stable, homogenous mixtures of oil and water that can encapsulate hydrophobic drugs, increasing their solubility and bioavailability. High pressure homogenizers can be used to create nanoemulsions by forcefully pushing the mixture of oil and water through a small orifice under high pressure, which can break the mixture into small droplets.
Liposomes are spherical vesicles composed of a phospholipid bilayer that can encapsulate hydrophilic or hydrophobic drugs, increasing their stability and targeted delivery. High pressure homogenizers can be used to create liposomes by forcefully pushing the phospholipids and drug through a small orifice under high pressure, which can form the spherical vesicles.
Additionally, High pressure homogenizers can also be used to reduce the particle size of drugs, which can improve the dissolution rate and bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs.
Therefore, the use of high pressure homogenizers can help to improve the bioavailability and efficacy of drugs, which can ultimately lead to faster identification of new drug candidates and can reduce the time needed to bring new drugs to market.
It's worth noting that high pressure homogenization is just one step in the drug development process, other steps such as preclinical and clinical studies, regulatory approval, and manufacturing must be completed as well. However, the use of high pressure homogenization can help to improve the quality and effectiveness of the final product, which may ultimately lead to faster approval and market availability of new drugs.
For more information about Pion's BEE brand high pressure homogenizers and the role they can play in the reduction of drug discovery and development time, please contact us here.
