Analog Design
Camille Georges Wermuth · Burger's Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery · 2010
Abstract Analog design is usually defined as the modification of a drug molecule or of any bioactive compound in order to prepare a new molecule showing chemical and biological similarity with the original model compound. Excellent descriptions of the various possibilities of bioisosteric replacement are found in Cannon's chapter “Analog Design” published in the previous edition of this book. As a rule, it is expected that the analog exhibits some improvements over the original drug molecule, but sometimes financial motivations are predominant and justify the decision to prepare an analog in order to share market parts. Analog design is a fruitful procedure, easy to practice, and very popularly employed in pharmaceutical research from the beginning. Particularly, from the second half of the twentieth century, the production of very sophisticated molecules such as steroids, prostaglandins, anticancer drugs, and antibiotics became available and considerable advances could be made in medicinal chemistry. Analog design represents two‐third of all small molecule sales. Among the 29 new drugs launched in 2000, 24 were copies.