Hit Generation

Hit Generation is a crucial step of all drug discovery campaigns that will determine the speed and chance of success of identifying drug candidates. We cover the essential approaches for hit generation and the opportunities and challenges they come with. We then provide guidance on how to validate hits to ensure medicinal chemistry is only performed on compounds and scaffolds that engage the target of interest and have the desired mode of action. Finally, we discuss the design of integrated hit generation strategies that combine several approaches to maximize the chance of identifying high quality starting points.

Once promising hits have been identified, the next step is to refine these molecules using our Hit-to-Lead Optimization guidelines. To ensure the reliability of tools used in hit generation, it’s essential to follow our Best Practices for Validating Chemical Probes, and for broader strategies in drug discovery, explore Phenotypic Drug Discovery approaches.

Please cite the EFMC Best Practices in Medicinal Chemistry WG work as following (please include both):

1. J. Quancard, A. Vulpetti, A. Bach, B. Cox, S. M. Guéret, I. V. Hartung, H. F. Koolman, S. Laufer, J. Messinger, G. Sbardella, R. Craft, ChemMedChem2023, 18, e202300002. https://doi.org/10.1002/cmdc.202300002;
2. The material (webinars, slide decks and case studies) is freely accessible for personal use or for use in further training or teaching material from the EFMC website https://www.efmc.info/hit-generation