The role of chemistry in the manufacture of new drugs, and also of cosmetics and agrochemicals, is essential. It is doubtful, however, whether chemists have been properly trained to design and synthesize new drugs or other bioactive compounds. The majority of medicinal chemists working in the pharmaceutical industry are organic synthetic chemists with little or no background in medicinal chemistry who have to acquire the specifi c aspects of medicinal chemistry during their early years in the pharmaceutical industry. This book is precisely aimed to be their ‘bedside book’ at the beginning of their career.