[Innovative new approaches in pharmacology]

After a brief recall of the molecular bases of the pharmacological actions, the two main ways of discovery of new drugs are described. On the one hand, the "deductive" approach starts with the elucidation of the pathogenic mechanisms and leads to selective drug designs for the appropriate receptors. The recent contributions of the molecular biology in this way are illustrated by some examples: "knock out" mice for the study of gene functions, discovery of new antibiotics thanks to genomic sequencing of bacteria, new pathogenic concepts about inflammation... On the other hand, the empirical approach is now grounded on two performant methods: High Throughput Screening and Combinatorial Chemistry which together have already given practical results. It is obvious that these two approaches are not opposite, but complementary.