Innovations Update

Dear Colleagues,

At the onset of the introduction of the popular Innovations section to ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters back in 2016, we had thought that historical accounts of the discovery of a drug from concept to market would be of major interest to the medicinal chemistry community. While this was (and remains) undoubtedly true, we have realized that there is a major need for accounts of the historical development of new technologies as well. We initiated an effort on this front with the well-received Special Issue “Med Chem Tech: Driving Drug Discovery” published in 2018 and have now decided to expand the scope of the Innovations section to include new technology or concept introduction. In this context, as examples, we have recently published an overview of the development of High Throughput Experimentation techniques by Merck,¹ a history of the development of an automation engineering group to support chemistry efforts at AbbVie,² and an article on the history of the chemistry technology development company Cyclofluidic.³ These examples just scratch the surface of what we believe is out there both in industry and academia. In this regard, we invite your contributions to what we anticipate will be a very valuable addition to the medicinal chemistry literature. If you are unsure whether your manuscript fits the Innovations scope, please send in a pre-submission inquiry to the Editorial Office: eic@medchemlett.acs.org.

We look forward to receiving your submissions for this exciting new initiative, which we believe will be of significant interest to the medicinal chemistry community!

Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.