In the drug industry, the later a substance is discharged from the drug development pipeline, the higher the financial cost. In order to reduce the number of lead compounds a number of computerized systems have been suggested, and in most of these systems modeling and simulation of the lead compound’s effects on different metabolic pathways are essential. Inthese systems, substances that are expected to be harmful or lethal can be removed at an early stage and a reduced number of lead compounds can be chosen for the concluding tests.

Given Modelica’s previous success with modeling and simulation of huge and complex systems it is likely that it will also be suitable for modeling, simulation, and visualization of metabolic pathway systems, e.g. those systems used in the drug industry. A Modelica library designed to be used for modeling, simulation, and visualization of metabolic pathways is the specialpurpose library Metabolic, an extension of the abstract Modelica library BioChem.