Medicinal Chemistry

 

 

Medicinal Chemistry

Medicinal chemistry has been defined as the chemistry discipline concerned with the design, development and synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs.

It combines expertise from chemistry and pharmacology to identify, develop and synthesize chemical entities that have optimal biological and physicochemical properties for the intended therapeutic use. The process to arrive at the best candidate for clinical evaluation requires a parallel, multiparameter optimization of lead molecules and coordinated pharmacological testing cycles. A sound chemical knowledge, analytical skills, focus, out-of-the-box thinking and broad project experience are the key attributes of the medicinal chemist to master and be successful in this game. A game that often has been compared to trying to solve Rubik’s cube without having the exact rules of how-to solve it.

COILED has a dedicated team of pharmaceutical, industry-experienced medicinal chemists with expertise in small molecule drug discovery and development. The team has an impressive track record which includes selection of clinical candidates for a wide range of therapeutic application such as cardiovascular disease, auto-immune disorders, diabetes type 2, ophthalmology, microbial infections and cancer. A number of these candidates have progressed to late phase development like Bruton kinase inhibitor acalabrutinib for treatment of lymphatic cancers, or have become marketed drugs like anticoagulant fondraparinux (Arixtra®).
Through its partner Radboud University Nijmegen state-of-the-art synthetic chemical capabilities and scientific know-how is provided. These skills are used during medicinal chemistry-driven projects, array/library preparation, when making chemical building blocks, or synthesizing literature compounds.