Back-up strategies in drug discovery: what, how and when?

•Back-up strategies and candidates in drug discovery are reviewed.•Progression of back-up candidates should depend on project key attributes.•Alignment of decision points is key to ensure proper candidate succession.•Recommendations to progress back-up candidates efficiently are presented.

The management of back-up strategies in drug discovery and development is usually done on an ad hoc basis depending upon a series of external factors including overall portfolio status and resource and/or budget availability. These are however an essential component of risk management and merit a more structured and systematic conduct throughout the lifetime of a project. An approach based upon a thorough alignment of decision points and data availability as well as a tailor-made progression of various types of back-up program as a function of project categorization is suggested.