A large-scale concordance study of toxicity findings across preclinical species and humans for small molecules and biologics
Translating preclinical safety findings into reliable insights for human risk assessment remains a fundamental challenge in drug development. Prior preclinical-clinical concordance studies have been constrained by limited drug coverage, reliance on identical-term matching for adverse events (AEs), and limited consideration of species, modality, exposure, and biological or mechanistic context. To address these gaps, we assembled a large cross-species concordance dataset, integrating standardized preclinical and clinical safety data for 7,565 marketed and investigational drugs from PharmaPendium and OFF-X. Our framework employs likelihood ratios to reduce prevalence bias and extends concordance assessment beyond identical-term matches to include semantically and mechanistically related AE pairs. Stratified analyses by species, modality, and exposure-matched subsets further refined translational relevance, while integration of on- and off-target annotations supports mechanistic interpretation and potential screening. Using this approach, we identified 850 significant identical-term AEs and 2,833 additional unique endpoints from cross-term associations. To promote reproducibility and transparency in animal research, we provide open access to the analytic code and statistical results via an interactive web application. An accompanying multi-agent AI system (ToxAgents) enables standardized querying and interpretation of concordance results. Together, these resources extend previous foundational efforts and establish a shared, data-driven platform to advance translational safety science, support evidence-based study design aligned with the 3Rs principles, and ultimately contribute to the development of safer medicines to improve human health.
Authors
- Fan Fan
- Xin Liu
Institutions
- Johnson & Johnson (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Frontiers in Toxicology
- Published
- 2026-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/ftox.2026.1731947
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Computational Drug Discovery Methods
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 23.82