Which of the following is a step in the drug discovery process?

• A. Identify disease
• B. Launch marketing campaign
• C. File NDA
• D. Phase IV post-marketing studies

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is the early stage of drug development where the problem and context are defined. Drug discovery starts by identifying the disease you aim to treat and understanding its biology well enough to know what to target. This sets up how you search for compounds that might affect that target and how you design experiments to test them.

So why is identifying the disease the best choice? Because it represents the initial, science-driven step that shapes everything that follows—defining the unmet medical need, selecting potential biological targets, and guiding the screening and optimization of candidate molecules. The other options occur later in the process: launching a marketing campaign happens after a drug is developed and approved; filing an NDA is a regulatory step needed for approval, not discovery; and Phase IV post-marketing studies are conducted after a product has already entered the market to monitor long-term safety and effectiveness.