Converging global crises are forcing the rapid adoption of disruptive changes in drug discovery.

Spiralling research costs combined with urgent pressures from the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the consequences of climate disruption are forcing changes in drug discovery. Increasing the predictive power of in vitro human assays and using them earlier in discovery would refocus resources on more successful research strategies and reduce animal studies. Increasing laboratory automation enables effective social distancing for researchers, while allowing integrated data capture from remote laboratory networks. Such disruptive changes would not only enable more cost-effective drug discovery, but could also reduce the overall carbon footprint of discovering new drugs.