Amjad Ali; Marcus Bauser; Sophie Bertrand; Wesley Blackaby; Christoph Boss; Martin Bossart; Adrian Hall; Hayley Binch; Werngard Czechtizky; Harrie Gijsen; Helmut Haning; Ingo V. Hartung; Paul Kilburn; Gilbert Lassalle; Ulrich Lücking; Jürgen Mack; Martin Missbach; Leena Otsomaa; Antoni Torrens; Michael Wagner; Magnus Walter; Harald Weinstabl; Luc van Hijfte; Franz von Nussbaum
ChemMedChem, 2023, e202300127
https://doi.org/10.1002/cmdc.202300127

Abstract

The status of industrial Medicinal Chemistry was discussed with European Medicinal Chemistry Leaders from large to mid-sized pharma and CRO companies as well as biotechs. The chemical modality space has expanded recently from small molecules to address new challenging targets. Besides the classical SAR/SPR optimization of drug molecules also their ‘greenness’ has increasing importance. The entire pharma discovery ecosystem has developed significantly. Beyond pharma and academia new key players such as Biotech and integrated CROs as well as Digital companies have appeared and are now to a large extend fueled by VC money. Digitalization is happening everywhere but surprisingly did not change speed and success rates of projects so far. Future Medicinal Chemists will still have to be excellent synthetic chemists but in addition they must be knowledgeable in new computational areas such as data sciences. Their ability to collaborate and to work in teams is key.