What is the valley of death in drug development?

The Valley of Death refers to the obstacles that are keeping innovative medical research discoveries from becoming new therapies or even making it to clinical trials. Funding is necessary to bridge the gap.

Which step of the drug treatment approval process is called the Valley of Death?

One of these phases—translational research—is sometimes referred to as the “Valley of Death.” Translational research got this reputation because the process of translating early discoveries into effective treatments for patients is time-consuming, costly, and often unsuccessful.

What are the stages of drug discovery?

Drug Discovery

• Target Discovery.
• Target Validation.
• Lead Compound Identification.
• Lead Optimization.
• Investigational New Drug (IND) Application.
• Phase I Clinical Trials.
• Phase II Clinical Trials.
• Phase III Clinical Trials.

What is the Valley of Death in science?

The phase between research and successful innovation is known as the valley of death. Increasingly, researchers from the pharmaceutical industry and academia are working together, often encouraged by governments, to cross this ‘valley’ as they seek to bring basic research to the market.

What is drug attrition?

The high failure rates associated with pharmaceutical development are referred to as an “attrition rate”, requiring decisions during the early stages of drug development to “kill” projects early to avoid costly failures.

How long is the drug development process?

On average, it takes at least ten years for a new medicine to complete the journey from initial discovery to the marketplace, with clinical trials alone taking six to seven years on average. The average cost to research and develop each successful drug is estimated to be $2.6 billion.

What are the three major phases of drug discovery?

Once a lead compound is found, drug development begins with preclinical research to determine the efficacy and safety of the drug. Researchers determine the following about the drug: Absorption, distribution, metabolization, and excretion information.

What is the first step in drug discovery process?

An overview of the drug discovery process

1. Step 1 – Target identification and Validation. Target identification and validation kicks off the whole drug discovery process.
2. Step 2 – Hit identification and Validation.
3. Step 3 – Moving from a hit to a lead.
4. Step 4 – Lead Optimization.
5. Step 5 – Late Lead Optimization.

Why is it called the valley of the death?

The term ‘valley of death’ alludes to the difficulty in maturing technologies through this demonstration and validation stage due to a number of barriers, which ultimately lead to a failure to transfer many new technologies to industry.

How do you overcome the valley of death?

For the rest of us, the following suggestions will help you survive the valley of death:

1. Accumulate some resources before you start.
2. Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow.
3. Solicit funds from friends and family.
4. Use crowd funding.
5. Apply for contests and business grants.
6. Get a loan or line-of-credit.