The role of medicinal chemistry in drug research.
Classical medicinal chemistry, that is molecular modifications of existing bioactive compounds, leading to me-too drugs with value added and often to me-too drugs which will never reach the market or to drugs in another pharmacological field than that originally intended, will be with us for a long time to come. The ultimate goal, however, is of course rational or at least semi-rational drug design. In some instances this goal seems to have already been reached as in the case of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and H2 antagonists. In the (near) future results from the steady progress in molecular biology in combination with computer-assisted drug modelling--possibly coupled with artificial intelligence techniques--will help the medicinal chemist in his efforts to attain this goal.
Soudijn
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Centre for Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands.
D000818:Animals; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship