Drug development is the process of developing new drug molecules for clinical uses.  It involves a wide range of steps and procedure, starting right from the research process to the ultimate discovery of the target drug and finally the production of the drug commercially.  The importance of drug development is to bring new drugs with effective results for therapeutic use.  That is the main reason why preclinical trial and it's different stages are a crucial point for every newly discovered drug.

Primarily there are three methods for drug designing based on structure, modelling and fragments. They are: NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), Homology Modelling, and X-Ray crystallography . 

In NMR, magnetic fields, weak and strong, are used to determine the nuclei structure, which reponds by producing electromagnetic signals with characteristic frequency and hence determing the structure.Homology modelling are used to produce 3D structure of proteins by using their sequences. It is know to produce very accurate results just like experimental methods. X-Ray crystallography is used for the detailed analysis of crystal structures of protein-ligand complexes. This  allows the study of the specific interactions of a drugs with protein target at an atomic level. It is used to design and improve drugs.

During the Initial stages of the drug discovery of a particular disease, the mechanisms of those diseases are studied at a molecular level. Various factors such as cellular and genetic variations and mechanisms are studied. after the study of these factors the potential targets are identified. These targets are viewed by researchers as leads for new drugs. The lead compounds are generally used as starting points to design a new drug entity. This can be used to enhance pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic factors. In short the basic properties of a new lead are:

• Pharmacodynamic properties - Efficacy, potency, selectivity.
• Physiochemical properties - Water solubility, chemical solubility.
• Pharmacokinetic properties - Metabolic stability, Toxicological aspects

 Clinical trials are research studies performed in people that are aimed at evaluating a medical, surgical, or behavioral intervention. They are the primary way that researchers find out if a new treatment, like a new drug or diet or medical device (for example, a pacemaker) is safe and effective in people. In the same way new Therapeutic Drugs also go through such a process to be labeled as safe for use and to be commercially available. Drug trials are usually done in pre-defined phases.

• Phase 0 - clinical trials done among people.
• Phase 1 -  aim to find the best dose of a new drug with the fewest side effects.
• Phase 2 - further assess safety as well as if a drug works.
• Phase 3 - compare a new drug to the standard-of-care drug.
• phase 4 - test new drugs approved by the FDA.

These days technology has helped to enhance every aspects of our life. In the same way it has also helped in the Drug Discovery process. Different steps such as Drug design, drug screening, polypharmacology, drug repurposing, chemical synthesis are AI based. Computational aids are also used to analyse drug molecules and structure predictions.

Hit to lead also known as lead generation is a stage in early drug discovery where small molecule hits from a high throughput screen are evaluated. They undergo limited optimization to identify promising lead compounds. Followed by the step of lead generation is Lead optimization. It is the process by which a drug candidate is designed after an initial lead compound is identified. Efficacy of drug determines the maxium response that can be generated by the use of certain drug. A dose- response graph is constructed to represent the values graphically. This helps to determine whether the drug discovered is essentially beneficial and meet the required demands.

Drug safety also plays a major role role here. Often a very efficient drug turns out to be harmful in the long run. Thus a proper assessment and understand is needed to prevent side effects. The Pharmacovigilance model is one such approach to better Drug safety assessments.

The global drug discovery services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.0 percent over the forecast period, from USD 11.1 billion in 2020 to USD 21.4 billion in 2025. The pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries are rising their R&D spending, necessitating an increase in demand for analytical testing and clinical trial services. The global drug discovery services industry is rising due to initiatives for research on rare diseases and orphan drugs, as well as an emphasis on drug discovery. Biologics growth, patent expirations, and emerging economies are expected to provide a diverse collection of growth opportunities for market participants.

Any company that sells a product or provides a service to customers must have quality management in place. Quality control and quality assurance are critical in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry for the effective production, manufacturing, and use of drugs that help save lives.