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.

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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
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article

A large-scale concordance study of toxicity findings across preclinical species and humans for small molecules and biologics

Fan Fan, Xin Liu
1 citations
Frontiers in Toxicology
Computational Drug Discovery Methods
23.82
article

A large-scale concordance study of toxicity findings across preclinical species and humans for small molecules and biologics

Fan Fan, Xin Liu
article en
1 citations

Abstract

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.

Frontiers in ToxicologyVol. 8
Johnson & Johnson (United States) (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Computational Drug Discovery Methods
23.82
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A large-scale concordance study of toxicity findings across preclinical species and humans for small molecules and biologics — Fan Fan, Xin Liu · Frontiers in Toxicology (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS