Models for profiling toxicity: applications in drug discovery and development

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Unacceptable levels of toxicity can lead to the abandonment of drugs at any stage of the developmental process, whether it be during drug discovery, preclinical testing or clinical trials. Investigational toxicological methods using models and hypotheses can often resolve problems and enable chemical templates or therapeutic discovery programmes to be salvaged. An example of this is the use of human hepatocytes to predict the potential toxicity of a drug in humans, or to elucidate the mechanism of toxicity once it has been observed. The integration of investigative toxicology in the drug discovery and developmental process was discussed at the 7th International Congress of Toxicology [ Seattle, US; July 1995 ].