Organic chemistry has long been a driving force in drug discovery and thus a backbone of research and development in the pharmaceuticals industry. The pharmaceutical industry currently faces significant challenges, including a decreasing output of new medical entities, ever increasing regulatory requirements and risk perception in society, and more recently, reimbursement issues due to the desire of healthcare systems to reduce costs.
The current societal and scientific atmosphere combine to present the pharma industry with significant challenges, as Hanno Wild of Bayer HealthCare comments in his Editorial for Angewandte Chemie. He goes on to describe how innovative chemistry will help to meet these challenges, including by the development of novel small-molecule drugs and through the improvement of biomolecule-based treatments by chemical modification.
- Editorial: The Importance of Chemistry for the Future of the Pharma Industry
Hanno Wild, Dirk Heimbach, Christoph Huwe,
Angew, Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50(33), 7452–7453.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201103888
See also:
- Chemistry’s Role in Regenerative Energy
R. Schlögl discusses the current energy mix of nuclear, fossil, and renewable energy carriers and shows the importance of chemistry - Chemistry As Innovation Driver
Renowned chemists discuss research politics, relationship of chemistry and society, and Angewandte’s 50th anniversary - There’s Life In The Old Dog Yet!
Drug discovery – where does the future lie? Small molecule drugs will play a major role according to H. Wild and D. Heimbach
