Given the exponential proliferation of technical data and our increasing ability to rapidly disseminate it through a vast maze of electronic networks, it is no wonder that new systems capable of managing and integrating information are regarded among the most important of the emerging technologies for future growth and economic development across the globe. And in the midst of its own economics-driven revolution, this theme is probably nowhere more relevant than within the pharmaceutical research and health-care enterprise where new technologies having the potential to accelerate drug discovery or to expedite the development of new drug candidates, along with improved systems for enhancing the equitable delivery and pharmacoeconomics of pharmaceutical care, would be immediately greeted with considerable international enthusiasm. It was into this climate that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) chose to initiate a Working Party (WP) whose specific mission would be to consider the topic 'Metabolism Databases and Their Potential Utility in the Development of New Drugs.' This text represents the product from the IUPAC sponsored WP's efforts as it has attempted to address this topic during the course of the last year-and-a-half.

