Section A-The sclence of medicinal chemistry A2 FROM CONCEPT TO MARKET Key Notes In general, there are three main phases in getting a drug to the market drug discovery, drug design and drug testing/development ise1-drug Most medicinal chemistry projects start by identifying a drug target.A discovery is then developed and a search is made for compound having the desired activity-a lead compound Phase 2-drug Analogs of the lead compound are synthesized and tested, allowing identification of structural features which are important for activity. These features are retained during the design of analogs with improved pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties and deverug testing Drugs are patented as quickly as possible. Pre-clinical trials are carried elopment out to assess the properties and safety of the new drug. If these pre atisfactory, clinical trials are carried out. The development of a large cale synthesis proceeds in parallel to the biological testing Regulatory authorities are responsible for approving drugs for clinical trials and the The chemist's A graduate with a chemistry or medicinal chemistry degree has skills industry, such as drug discovery, drug design, quality control, radiosynthesis and manufacture Related topic Introduction(Al) verview In general, there are three phases involved in discovering a new drug and getting it to market. Phase 1 is drug discovery, which involves finding an active compound for a particular target. Phase 2 is drug design, where the propertie of that active compound are improved such that it is potent and selective for its target and can also reach that target. Phase 3 involves all the testing procedures and development work that have to be carried out on the drug in order to get it to the market Phase 1-drug Nowadays, most medicinal chemistry projects start by identifying a suitable discovery drug target(Section B). Knowledge of the physiological role played by that target allows the researcher to propose what effect a drug would have if it inter acted with the target. Drug targets are usually biological macromolecules such as carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. The most common targets are proteins followed by nucleic acids. Once a target has been chosen, suitable testing methods have to be developed (Section D) which will demonstrate whether potential drugs have the desired activity. It is then a case of finding a