Comment by vhiremath4
8 hours ago
Is it fair to say the source of the failures is we simply do not understand the complex relationship between the drug design (chemistry, cell therapy, etc.) and the biology (the complete system of the living thing). If we could understand that relationship, we could design better drugs? I know this is very hand-wavy. Probably so much so as to not be a useful thing to say, but I'm just trying to understand.
Not necessarily. It is often due to a lack of choices (in lead candidates).
Correct. The on-target effects of antivenin can be well-modeled along with a known subset of off-target effects, but the latter is far too complex and unknown to model completely.
Trials are the acceptable middle ground that uses animal and human models to explore those unknowns.