Book excerpt: A unique, holistic approach covering all functions and phases of pharmaceutical research and development While there are a number of texts dedicated to individual aspects of pharmaceutical research and development, this unique contributed work takes a holistic and integrative approach to the use of computers in all phases of drug discovery, development, and marketing. It explains how applications are used at various stages, including bioinformatics, data mining, predicting human response to drugs, and high-throughput screening. By providing a comprehensive view, the book offers readers a unique framework and systems perspective from which they can devise strategies to thoroughly exploit the use of computers in their organizations during all phases of the discovery and development process. Chapters are organized into the following sections: * Computers in pharmaceutical research and development: a general overview * Understanding diseases: mining complex systems for knowledge * Scientific information handling and enhancing productivity * Computers in drug discovery * Computers in preclinical development * Computers in development decision making, economics, and market analysis * Computers in clinical development * Future applications and future development Each chapter is written by one or more leading experts in the field and carefully edited to ensure a consistent structure and approach throughout the book. Figures are used extensively to illustrate complex concepts and multifaceted processes. References are provided in each chapter to enable readers to continue investigating a particular topic in depth. Finally, tables of software resources are provided in many of the chapters. This is essential reading for IT professionals and scientists in the pharmaceutical industry as well as researchers involved in informatics and ADMET, drug discovery, and technology development. The book's cross-functional, all-phases approach provides a unique opportunity for a holistic analysis and assessment of computer applications in pharmaceutics.