Drug discovery

Drug discovery is the search for a molecule worth developing: identifying a biological target implicated in disease, screening for compounds that act on it, and refining an initial hit into a candidate with acceptable potency, selectivity and drug-like behaviour. For biological products the equivalent work is design and engineering rather than chemistry.

We follow discovery because it sets the terms for everything downstream, and because it is the stage where announcements are most frequent and least conclusive. A validated target is a beginning, not a treatment.