Medicinal Chemistry

The role of the Medicinal Chemistry department of the Merck Frosst Centre for Therapeutic Research is to create the chemical entities from which will eventually come a new medicine. The medicinal chemists merge expertise in organic chemistry, computational chemistry, analytical chemistry and drug metabolism to conceptualize, design and create the optimal molecules.

In the early days of a new program of discovery, medicinal chemists provide other scientists with the research tools that they need to identify the most appropriate target of drug intervention and to set up assays. Custom-designed reagents, including substrates, standards, inhibitors, activators, agonists or antagonists, are the work of the medicinal chemists.

Once a therapeutic target is defined, the second major role of our medicinal chemists is to identify and optimize new compounds that have activity against the target. An active product from the sample bank—a lead compound—creates the starting point. Chemists may synthesize related structures or create structural analogs of the lead compound, which are then tested on the target.

Each new molecule runs the gauntlet of the biologists' assays and the results guide the next stage in the refinement process. This dynamic feedback loop defines the structure and reactivity relationships of the molecules—what they are, what they do and how they do it. The overall profile of each candidate molecule, rather than any one feature, will determine whether it can be considered for use in humans.

The process of coming up with a chemical structure and developing it into a drug candidate may take 10 to 12 years with over 10,000 candidate compounds rejected for every one that makes it. The Merck Frosst Centre for Therapeutic Research boasts some sophisticated analytical tools to help reduce this time frame, including the very latest in mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance equipment. Strong computational chemistry expertise allows scientists to use computer technology to assist in selecting compounds, search out additional leads or design pieces of a potential new molecule.

 

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