Fragment-Based Drug Discovery: a Practical Approach

This book presents a company-based view of the recent progresses in fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD). The book is highly focussed on methodologies. However, theory is only briefly introduced leaving ample space for the discussion of their implementation in drug discovery campaigns, thereby giving the reader a clear sense of their applicability and usefulness. Most of the examples come from pharmaceutical drug discovery programs led by the authors themselves, most of which are from the industry side. The opening chapter provides an overview of the advantages of using chemical fragments in drug discovery. These include an analysis of the potential advantages over HTS screening, a popular methodology that proved to be problematic in the development of druglike compounds. Compared with other approaches, fragment-based drug discovery has the potential of finding novel molecules that can be optimized into patentable compounds more easily, have greater molecular diversity, higher hit rates, and are ideally suited for “undruggable” and novel targets.