Drug-induced toxicities, with hepatotoxicity and cardiotoxicity being the most common, are the main cause for the withdrawal of drugs from the market. Potential drug candidates often fail because of unacceptable levels of toxicity in the process of drug development. Therefore, prediction of potential toxicities of candidate compounds is of great importance for successful drug development. Early-stage drug toxicity testing can save both time and cost by reducing the chance of failure in preclinical or clinical phase. Compared to in vivo studies, In vitro toxicity tests are believed to be more useful at an early stage due to their short turnaround time and relatively low cost.
