BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

Attenuating attrition

July 11, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

High drug attrition rates from poor safety have spawned numerous efforts to use in silico methods to improve molecule design, but none of the algorithms created so far has emerged as a true game changer. Now, AstraZeneca plc and Roche have concluded that better prediction requires more data, and they are pooling their information via an intermediary cheminformatics company, MedChemica Ltd., to produce a new set of design rules.

In 1997, Christopher Lipinski created the first widely recognized set of rules to guide the optimization of physicochemical properties, such as solubility and lipophilicity, and facilitate the generation of drug-like compounds...