I think everyone recognises the pharmaceutical industry has undergone,
and is still undergoing, massive changes in the way drugs are discovered,
synthesised and manufactured. The medicinal chemist plays a vital role in
coordinating the wide-ranging scientific disciplines and driving technological
innovations in the quest for these new medicines. This enormously complex
task must also be responsive to the demands of our modern society, be they
for economical reasons, having enhanced safety profiles or leading to envir￾onmental issues. Similarly, time-lines and the global nature of this highly
competitive business add additional burdens to the discovery process.
For these many reasons the molecular architects who design these exquisite
structures and the synthesisers who transform simple building blocks to func￾tional systems are forced to be increasingly creative and innovative by taking
their craft to a higher art form. The rapid evolution and incorporation of new
tools and novel technologies together with advances that arise by challenging
the chemical reactivity dogmas of the past provides the engine to drive future
successes.
This book refreshingly brings together diverse concepts, techniques and
processes, all of which enhance our ability to assemble functional molecules
and provides the reader with a modern skill set and an appreciation of the
dynamic character of medicinal chemistry today. Indeed, many of the authors
remove the constraints and blinkers associated with the traditional labour￾intensive practices of the past and provide a glimpse of the future. The chapters
reflect modern thinking in terms of automation and parallel methods of
synthesis, particularly focussing on design by making what should be made as
opposed to what can be made.