Medicinal chemistry
It includes synthetic and computational aspects of the study of existing drugs and agents in development in relation to their bioactivities (biological activities and properties), i.e., understanding their structure–activity relationships (SAR).
[5] At the biological interface, medicinal chemistry combines to form a set of highly interdisciplinary sciences, setting its organic, physical, and computational emphases alongside biological areas such as biochemistry, molecular biology, pharmacognosy and pharmacology, toxicology and veterinary and human medicine; these, with project management, statistics, and pharmaceutical business practices, systematically oversee altering identified chemical agents such that after pharmaceutical formulation, they are safe and efficacious, and therefore suitable for use in treatment of disease.
In addition, hits also routinely originate from structural observations of small molecule "fragments" bound to therapeutic targets (enzymes, receptors, etc.
Further chemistry and analysis is necessary, first to identify the "triage" compounds that do not provide series displaying suitable SAR and chemical characteristics associated with long-term potential for development, then to improve the remaining hit series concerning the desired primary activity, as well as secondary activities and physiochemical properties such that the agent will be useful when administered in real patients.
[citation needed] The final synthetic chemistry stages involve the production of a lead compound in suitable quantity and quality to allow large scale animal testing, and then human clinical trials.
This involves the optimization of the synthetic route for bulk industrial production, and discovery of the most suitable drug formulation.
[citation needed] The synthetic methodology employed in medicinal chemistry is subject to constraints that do not apply to traditional organic synthesis.
Other parameters by which medicinal chemists assess or classify their compounds are: synthetic complexity, chirality, flatness, and aromatic ring count.
The length of training is intense, with practitioners often required to attain a 4-year bachelor's degree followed by a 4–6 year Ph.D. in organic chemistry.
