Discontinued Drugs in 2005 - Featured Series of Reports From Expert Opinion.

LONDON, October 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The current issue of Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs features the first in a series of reports by key opinion leaders analysing discontinued drugs in 2005.

Dr Keith Suckling (formerly GlaxoSmithKline, UK) provides his expert opinion on cardiovascular drugs that were dropped from clinical development in 2005; and Professor Lloyd Kelland (Head of Biology, Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London) discusses the 20 drugs discontinued in 2005 in the field of oncology.

These will be followed in later issues by papers on pulmonary, dermatological, gastrointestinal and arthritis drugs by Professor Kenneth KC Lee (The Chinese University of Hong Kong); drugs for disorders of the central nervous system by Professor Robert Kerwin (Professor of Clinical Neuropharmacology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London); anti-infectives by Dr Nafsika Georgopapadakou (MethylGene); and renal, endocrine and metabolic drugs by Dr Jerry Colca (Kalamazoo Metabolic Research).

The series of papers is introduced by an editorial, featured in the November issue, by Dr Louis A Tartaglia (Senior Vice President and General Manager, Drug Repositioning and Selection, Gene Logic) on the value of drug repositioning.

Data from the Pharmaprojects drug R&D pipeline database estimates around 100 compounds are discontinued every year, at an enormous cost to the pharmaceutical industry. There is clearly a need to identify the reasons for these failures and develop better and more efficient methods to avoid such losses in future.

TARTAGLIA LA: Complementary new approaches enable repositioning of failed drug candidates. Expert Opin. Investig. Drugs (2006) 15(11):1295-1298 doi:10.1517/13543784.15.11.1295 http://www.expertopin.com/doi/abs/10.1517/13543784.15.11.1295

SUCKLING K: Discontinued drugs in 2005: cardiovascular drugs. Expert Opin. Investig. Drugs (2006) 15(11):1299-1308 doi:10.1517/13543784.15.11.1299 http://www.expertopin.com/doi/abs/10.1517/13543784.15.11.1299

KELLAND L: Discontinued drugs in 2005: oncology drugs. Expert Opin. Investig. Drugs (2006) 15(11):1309-1318 doi:10.1517/13543784.15.11.1309 http://www.expertopin.com/doi/abs/10.1517/13543784.15.11.1309

About Expert Opinion

For over a decade, the Expert Opinion series has provided systematic and authoritative reviews to support every stage of the drug discovery and R&D pipeline from target to market. Each of the ten journals in the series covers a specific aspect of the pharmaceutical pipeline.

The series contains the following journals: Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, Expert Opinion on Drug Metabolism & Toxicology, Expert Opinion on Drug Safety, Expert Opinion on Emerging Drugs, Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets and Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery.

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CONTACT: For further information: Phil Garner, Publisher, Telephone: [phone], Email: [e-mail], Website: http://www.expertopin.com/