pharmacochemistry
phar·ma·ceu·ti·cal chem·is·try
medicinal chemistry
The discipline involved in discovering and developing new chemical compounds into useful medicines; the analysis, development, preparation, and manufacture of drugs.Medicinal chemistry begins after biologically validated targets have been screened against a diverse library of compounds and promising initial chemical structures (known as hits) have been identified; the hits are then optimised to improve their therapeutic index—potency vs. toxicity.