Role of metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies in the discovery of new drugs--present and future perspectives.

1. The impact which pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism studies have made to drug discovery programmes is reviewed with examples from the anti-infective, cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory and CNS therapeutic areas. 2. Contributions that advances in analytical technology have made to the early application of pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism are discussed. 3. Some future perspectives are given on the advances being made in basic science and technology and how this will provide the basis for further growth in the contribution to the drug discovery process.