Commentary: a view on discovery pathology

Most nonclinical safety studies performed to satisfy regulatory requirements include numerous anatomic and clinical pathology endpoints. Consequently, the traditional predominant role of the pathologist in the pharmaceutical industry has focused upon the interpretation of histologic changes in tissues and of clinicopathologic changes in blood from animals that had been exposed to new chemical entities. In addition to this conventional role, pathologists are increasingly being recognized for their expanded contributions to drug discovery and development. The medical training, specialty or residency training, and comparative medicine perspective place the industrial pathologist in a unique position to contribute broadly to the objectives of drug discovery and development programs. In addition, the technologies in the pathologist’s repertoire have broad application and utility to many areas of biomedical research in the pharmaceutical industry. Such objectives and areas of research include characterization of ! disease states; identification of modified disease states as a response to administration of potential therapies; characterization and quantification of toxic responses to drug administration ; delineation of mechanisms of toxicities and potential relevance to target species; and facilitation of multidisciplinary efforts to monitor for the clinical occurrence, progression, and reversibility of adverse events. The business and science of pharmaceutical research and development is increasingly complex, and the pressures associated with them create competitive advantages for companies that are able to deploy resources in novel and beneficial ways. Use of pathologists to support drug discovery represents one such approach.