The Strategies and Politics of Successful Design, Make, Test, and Analyze (DMTA) Cycles in Lead Generation

The process known in the pharmaceutical industry as the design, make, test, and analyze (DMTA) cycle is essentially a restatement of the classic scientific method, but applied within the specific context of candidate drug refinement and selection. This chapter discusses four components of the DMTA cycle, namely test, design, make, and analyze component, but focuses primarily on an incomplete listing of the questions that addressed in each of the components. It draws attention to decisions and consequences of lead generation strategies at each stage of the cycle. Many of the early drug discovery screening cascades relied on in vivo models for primary testing. A DMTA cycle is the iterative process of designing new compounds, synthesizing them, testing them in various assays, and analyzing the results prior to the next round of designs. The aims of a DMTA cycle in lead generation are different from those in lead optimization.