Whole-animal cellular and molecular imaging to accelerate drug development

In the past decade, new technologies (genomics), chemistries and high-throughput (HT) in vitro assays have played a large role in changing the paradigm of drug discovery and development. These technologies have enabled many more targets and potential lead compounds to be introduced into drug development. However, since 1996, the number of drug approvals per year has been decreasing. This reduced pipeline has now compromised the ability of bicipharmaceutical companies to deliver the double-digit growth levels that investors expect. This review explores what is lacking in the drug discovery and development process that has caused such a dearth of new chemical entities (NCEs), and looks at how new in vivo imaging technologies might provide an answer in the form of more predictive animal models.