Medicinal Chemistry

Medicinal chemistry and #pharmaceutical chemistry are disciplines at the intersection of #chemistry, especially synthetic organic chemistry, and #pharmacology and various other #biological specialties, where they are involved with design, chemical synthesis and development for market of pharmaceutical agents, or bio-active molecules (drugs). Compounds used as medicines are most often organic compounds, which are often divided into the broad classes of small organic #molecules (e.g., atorvastatin, fluticasone, clopidogrel) and "biologics" (infliximab, erythropoietin, insulin glargine), the latter of which are most often medicinal preparations of proteins (natural and recombinant antibodies, hormones, etc.). Inorganic and organometallic compounds are also useful as drugs (e.g., lithium and platinum-based agents such as lithium carbonate and cis-platin as well as gallium).