Drug Design and Discovery

The IOS has over 55 years experience in drug discovery and is proud to be an inventor and co-inventor of 18 original approved drugs. Today IOS performs independent medicinal chemistry research and offers medicinal chemistry services for industrial customers.

Medicinal chemistry at IOS is not about preparation of large number of compounds, our specialists have access to modern computational tools allowing them to perform quantum chemical calculations, docking, NMR studies of ligand – protein interactions etc. Efficient teamwork with pharmacologists and analytical chemists provides valuable information about properties of synthesized molecules.

There are different cooperation models in medicinal chemistry – starting from simple synthesis of screening compounds and ending up with close cooperation between the customer and IOS during the whole drug discovery process.

Low_temp_synth The typical medicinal chemistry services at IOS include:

  1. Design and synthesis of novel, patentable compounds with therapeutic potential against customer’s defined targets
  2. Design and synthesis of compoundsfor the exploration of SAR of customer’s lead or for other purposes (e.g. metabolites, standard reagents etc.) for use in customer’s drug discovery activities
  3. Development and application of pharmacophore models based on customer’s and / or IOS data
  4. In silico screening of virtual libraries, generation of new core structures

Endorsement from partner

I have worked for more than one decade with the scientists of IOS and I was always impressed with their high professional skill, their creativity, their performance under pressure and their total reliability. With regard to productivity IOS exceeded any other CRO I have worked with over the last 10 years. In contrast to other CROs, IOS scientists were totally integrated int all Merz research activities and were doing medicinal chemistry instead of just synthetic chemistry. Their ability to interpret the data of a pharma research process is state of the art and allows them very often to synthesise the magic bullet that every pharma project desperately needs.

markus-henrich

Markus Henrich PhD
RnD-Consultancy
Executive Director
Drug Discovery and Development at Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH

To ask about medicinal chemistry projects please contact:
Prof. Ivars Kalvinsh