Background

The drug development process involves extensive discovery work. Drug development companies choose a molecule, such as a gene or protein, to target with a drug. The drug developer then confirms that the molecule is indeed involved with the disease in question. After testing multiple drug molecules, the drug development company will choose those that have promise. It’s not uncommon for drug developers to have more than a handful of promising lead compounds at this stage.

Most small molecules are derived from natural products in plants, fungi, and microbes. Medicinal chemists can also use their knowledge and skills to manually design chemical molecules that are like the starting set of molecules. This process is very time-consuming despite the wide use