Importance of Preclinical Imaging in Drug Discovery

The process of discovering and bringing a drug to market consists of several stages, beginning with identification and validation of a drug target and continuing through lead identification by high-throughput screening, lead optimization, and profiling in relevant disease models. When a promising compound is found, a decision must be made on whether to take the drug into development. This long and expensive undertaking typically requires nearly $800 million and takes about 12 years before an approved drug is brought to market 1 .