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Article: Companies Join To Provide Drug Discovery Solutions
- Article from:
- R & D
- Article date:
- September 1, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Advantage Business Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Pharmaceutical companies are looking increasingly to outsource their drug discovery research, both to complement their own efforts and to gain access to proprietary technologies that will help them accelerate the discovery process. One focus of this thrust concerns the development of leads - novel biologically active compounds that have affinities for selected enzyme or receptor biological targets, compounds that could serve as bases for drug candidates.
Historically, the main sources of leads have been natural products isolated from plant, animal, or fermentation materials. There is a great diversity of candidates here; however, this often is a disadvantage because ...