Optimizing candidate selection--a vision in business limited conference. 1-2 December 1998, Basel, Switzerland

The pharmaceutical industry is faced with filtering hundreds of thousands of compounds to identify successful drug candidates. Given these numbers, how does the pharmaceutical industry identify optimal therapeutic agents rapidly, efficiently, economically and successfully, with the ultimate result of the patient receiving the best drug? The conference summarized the present and future requirements for evaluating emerging technologies, integrating that technology into a filter for large and growing numbers of compounds, building and linking diverse knowledge bases, and establishing predictive foundations that will optimize and accelerate drug discovery and development. Specific conference topics focused on organizational and management approaches as well as some of the major technologies and emerging techniques for supporting drug candidate selection and optimization. It is predicted that the pharmaceutical industry will be synthesizing and screening a million or more compounds for multiple therapeutic targets in the near future. Pulling together the resources of current and emerging technology, knowledge, and multidisciplinary teamwork, so that discovery and selection of successful drug candidates from this large pool of compounds can take place rapidly, is a significant challenge. This conference focused on the organizational issues and experimental tools that can provide for a shortening of discovery time, identification of current and future selection techniques and criteria, the linking of technologies and business strategies to reduce risk, and novel processes for optimizing candidates more quickly and efficiently. The conference was directed at industrial scientists involved in all stages along the drug discovery and development interface. This conference was well-attended, with approximately 100 participants.