Drug Discovery Books

I occasionally get asked for suggestions for books on Drug Discovery. I actually find the Case History type publications the most interesting so my choices are perhaps biased, but here they are with links to Amazon.

One of by favourites is Drug Prototypes and Their Exploitation by Walter Sneader, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, ISBN-10: 0471948470 which is now out of print, and has been replaced by Drug Discovery: A History by the same author.

Another book along the same lines is Drugs: From Discovery to Approval by Rick Ng. This gives a pretty good overview of the drug discovery process.

If you are looking for an introduction to Medicinal Chemistry then Real World Drug Discovery: A Chemist's Guide to Biotech and Pharmaceutical Research is an excellent starting point.

If you want an authorative book on the molecular properties of drug like molecules then Drug-like Properties: Concepts, Structure Design and Methods: From ADME to Toxicity Optimization is the book for you.

Foye's Principles of Medicinal Chemistry is an excellent undergraduate teaching book and is probably on the recommended reading list for many courses.

For many chemists the regulatory development process can seem like a black box, to get an insight into the regulatory process I'd recommend New Drug Development: A Regulatory Overview .

In most drug discovery projects sorting out the ADME/T issues is the most challenging part of the project. Handbook of Essential Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics and Drug Metabolism for Industrial Scientists provides a useful desktop reference for PK/PD issues and can provide answers to questions like "What is the plasma volume of a Guinea Pig?".

The problem with books is that updating them is not a trivial exercise, and so they can appear dated.