Fragment-Based Drug Design: From Then until Now, and Toward the Future

Fragment-based drug design (FBDD) has emerged as a powerful strategy in drug discovery, offering a complementary approach to traditional high-throughput screening (HTS)-based drug discovery. Over almost half a century, FBDD has undergone significant evolution, leading to the discovery of multiple approved drugs in the market. The integration of structural and computational tools into FBDD has significantly enhanced its efficiency, facilitating rational drug design. As the field of drug discovery expands beyond traditionally druggable targets and explore novel modalities, FBDD is poised to play a pivotal role in targeting a wide range of biomolecules, including challenging and undruggable targets such as proteins and RNAs. The continued advancement of FBDD, particularly through the incorporation of cutting-edge computational and screening methods, will pave the way for future success in medicinal chemistry.