Quantitative pharmacology or quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) is a relatively new discipline with enormous potential to improve pharma R&D productivity. Most major pharma organizations are investing in it. QSP may also be able to leverage the enormous amounts of information we now have access to, including genomics and proteomics data.

QSP combines computational modeling and experimental data to examine the relationships between a drug, the biological system, and the disease process. This emerging discipline integrates quantitative drug data with knowledge of its mechanism of action. QSP models predict how drugs modify cellular networks in space and time and how they impact and are impacted by human pathophysiology. Additionally, QSP facilitates evaluating complex, heterogeneous diseases such as cancer, immunological, metabolic and central nervous system (CNS) diseases that probably will require combination therapies to fully control them.