Current applications of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry in pharmaceutical discovery after a decade of innovation.

Current drug discovery involves a highly iterative process pertaining to three core disciplines: biology, chemistry, and drug disposition. For most pharmaceutical companies the path to a drug candidate comprises similar stages: target identification, biological screening, lead generation, lead optimization, and candidate selection. Over the past decade, the overall efficiency of drug discovery has been greatly improved by a single instrumental technique, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). Transformed by the commercial introduction of the atmospheric pressure ionization interface in the mid-1990s, LC/MS has expanded into almost every area of drug discovery. In many cases, drug discovery workflow has been changed owing to vastly improved efficiency. This review examines recent trends for these three core disciplines and presents seminal examples where LC/MS has altered the current approach to drug discovery.