Medicinal
Chemistry

Our multidisciplinary chemistry and biology teams work with customers to design, synthesise and optimise compounds for targets and assays, supporting the identification of potential drug candidates. We support hit-to-lead and lead optimisation programmes across therapeutic areas such as oncology, immuno-oncology, fibrosis, CNS and pain, cardiometabolic and obesity, and inflammation-related areas where applicable.

Hit Generation & Validation

Aragen medicinal chemists use high-throughput screening and literature analysis to identify valuable starting points for discovery programs. Our capabilities include:

• Computational design hypothesis
• Landscape analysis for patentability and chemotype selection
• DNA-encoded library analysis
• Focused library generation
• Validation of primary hits and chemical series prioritization
• In vitro and primary ADME assays

Hit-to-Lead Identification

With evaluations, gap analyses and corrections to the identified hit series, we focus on identifying promising lead compounds through:

• Robustness checks of in silico models
• SAR analyses
• In vitro and in vivo assays
• ADME assays

Lead Optimization

Further optimizations address structure activity relationship (SAR) and structure property relationship (SPR) evaluation criteria to support progression towards suitable preclinical candidate selection. Capabilities at this stage include:

• Optimization of the lead molecule for potency and efficacy
• In vivo efficacy studies
• Scale-up support for efficacy and toxicity studies
• Preformulation studies