Hybrid Molecules with a Dual Mode of Action: Dream or Reality?

The drug market is still dominated by small molecules, and more than 80% of the clinical development of drug candidates in the top 20 pharmaceutical firms is still based on small molecules. The high cost of developing and manufacturing "biological drugs" will contribute to leaving an open space for drugs based on cheap small molecules. Four main routes can be explored to design affordable and efficient drugs: (i) a drastic reduction of the production costs of biological drugs, (ii) a real improvement of drug discovery via "computer-assisted combinatorial methods", (iii) going back to an extensive exploration of natural products as drug sources, and (iv) drug discovery by rational drug design and bio-inspired…