Introduction to special topic issue: New approaches in small molecule drug discovery

Abstract

In a recent drug discovery diversification of modality is progressing represented by antibody drugs, nucleic acid drugs and gene therapies. This seems to be attributed to the progress of platform technologies for each modality and high demand for unmet medical needs. In this environment small molecule drugs are used dominantly for the treatment of patients and still occupy large portion of clinical pipeline in each drug discovery company. Recently several new technologies/approaches are discovered in small molecule drug discovery world and this enable us to create new type of drugs which could not be realized by ordinal approaches. In this article the potential of small molecule drug discovery and representative new technologies/approaches are introduced.