Medicinal Chemistry

Medicinal chemistry begins after biologically validated targets have been screened against a diverse library of compounds and promising initial chemical structures, known as hits, have been identified. These hits are then optimized to improve their therapeutic index (potency vs. toxicity), bioavailability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. A key differentiator of our drug discovery and development capabilities is the degree to which we have successfully integrated the medicinal chemistry and biology capabilities needed to identify clinical candidates. We incorporate frequent feedback regarding a number of biological properties into selection of the next synthetic targets. By increasing the breadth of biological feedback while reducing the cycle time for such feedback, we intend to increase the quality of drug candidates produced in our discovery efforts. To maximize efficiency, we also employ high-throughput purification technologies to create sets of pure compounds for rapid optimization.