Product Description

Standard medicinal chemistry courses and texts are organized by classes of drugs with an emphasis on descriptions of their biological and pharmacological effects. This book represents a new approach based on physical organic chemical principles and reaction mechanisms that rationalize drug action and allow the reader to extrapolate to many related classes of drug molecules. The Second Edition reflects the significant changes in the drug industry over the past decade, and now includes color illustrations, chapter problems, and other elements that make concepts easier to understand.

* Organic chemist's perspective of how drugs are designed and function
* Teaches organic chemists and biochemists the fundamentals of drug design and drug action using drugs as examples
* Extensive use of references to the primary and secondary literature for more in depth reading about all concepts
* Extensive use of structures, schemes, and figures to illustrate points
* Explanations of dual-acting drugs
* Problem sets and answers for each topic
* Casual writing style
* Author has published over 200 articles in the areas of synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, and medicinal chemistry, has been awarded 21 patents, and has invented a drug that is under consideration for commercialization.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167525 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 617 pages

Review
Praise for the First Edition:

"This book is a tour de force in the title area...This book would be appropriate for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students…strongly recommended to scientists who are seeking an efficient introduction to medicinal chemistry, background in a specific drug principle or category, or a dose of inspiration."
--JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

"… unified, well-organized and clearly presented …It is so clearly written that it will be of value to both students and veteran scientists...My congratulations to Dr. Silverman in consolidating such a multiplicity of facts and data so as to truly begin to reduce medicinal chemistry from a hybrid of chemistry, pharmacology and related sciences to a single, clearly defined, rationalized discipline."
--Carl Kaiser, Director of Medicinal Chemistry, NOVA PHARMACEUTICAL CORPORATION

"The author shows an uncanny ability to present the salient principles in a systematic, well-balanced and logical way..."
--William C. Groutas, WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY

"I was favorably impressed with the clarity of Dr. Silverman's writing style which made the material interesting and easy to read...Treatment of the material is quite comprehensive without being overly detailed and the referencing and illustrations are well chosen..."
--John G. Topliss, PARKE-DAVIS

"...The organization of this book and the clarity of presentation are outstanding... It is highly recommended to medicinal chemists as well as to all others entering into the field or concerned with the science of medicinal chemistry."
--JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY -- Review

Review
"...this text is directed towards graduates who are embarking on a career in medicinal chemistry in the discovery laboratory. Sliverman continues to blur the edges between chemistry and pharmacology in a manner that is incontrovertibly relevant to the discipline of drug design and development."
-Michael E. Cooper, GE Healthcare, The Maynard Centre, in DDT, VOL. 9, 2004

"What stands out in comparison with other books discussed here is that the subjects are generally addressed in detail, and each theoretical point is illustrated with examples of specific drugs. A great deal of knowledge is reflected...that is suitable for both advanced students and PhDs a like who have not yet become acquainted with the area, but who wish to prepare themselves for a career in drug research."
-ORGANIC CHEMISTRY ORG., 2005

Praise for the First Edition:

"This book is a tour de force in the title area...This book would be appropriate for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students...strongly recommended to scientists who are seeking an efficient introduction to medicinal chemistry, background in a specific drug principle or category, or a dose of inspiration."
--JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

"... unified, well-organized and clearly presented ...It is so clearly written that it will be of value to both students and veteran scientists...My congratulations to Dr. Silverman in consolidating such a multiplicity of facts and data so as to truly begin to reduce medicinal chemistry from a hybrid of chemistry, pharmacology and related sciences to a single, clearly defined, rationalized discipline."
--Carl Kaiser, Director of Medicinal Chemistry, NOVA PHARMACEUTICAL CORPORATION

"The author shows an uncanny ability to present the salient principles in a systematic, well-balanced and logical way..."
--William C. Groutas, WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY

"I was favorably impressed with the clarity of Dr. Silverman's writing style which made the material interesting and easy to read...Treatment of the material is quite comprehensive without being overly detailed and the referencing and illustrations are well chosen..."
--John G. Topliss, PARKE-DAVIS

"...The organization of this book and the clarity of presentation are outstanding... It is highly recommended to medicinal chemists as well as to all others entering into the field or concerned with the science of medicinal chemistry."
--JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY

Praise for the new edition:

"...intent of the first edition was to provide a textbook for advanced undergraduate students or graduate students, the scope of the second edition has been expanded so that it not only serves the original purpose but also serves as an excellent reference book for practicing medicinal chemists."

--John W. Ellingboe, Wyeth Research for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2004

"...this book is a thorough overview of drug discovery and development... It is not only an excellent textbook for students but also a valuable resource for those already practicing medicinal chemistry."

John W. Ellingboe, Wyeth Research for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2004

From the Back Cover
This book provides a new approach to the teaching and understanding of medicinal chemistry. It is a survey of basic principles of drug design and drug action in which the concepts are presented from a physical organic chemistry perspective so that the design, development, and mechanisms of action and metabolism of drugs can be rationally understood. The reader is then able to apply these principles to any specific classes of drugs of interest and to understand how these drugs might act at a molecular level.

KEY FEATURES
*Provides an organic and synthetic chemist's perspective of how drugs are designed and how they function
*Teaches organic chemists and biochemists the fundamentals of drug design and drug action using drugs as examples
*No prior knowledge of biochemistry, pharmacology, or physiology is assumed
*Extensive use of references to the primary and secondary literature for more in depth reading about all concepts
*Extensive use of structures, schemes, and figures to illustrate points
*Problem sets and answers are included for each topic
*Informal but clear writing style so practicing chemists and undergraduates can easily understand the concepts presented

Richard B. Silverman is professor has published over 200 articles in the areas of synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, and medicinal chemistry, has been awarded 21 patents, and has invented a drug that is under consideration for commercialization.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding...
This is probably the best book of its kind in the vast and multidisciplinary field of drug design and action. Richard Silverman is an acclaimed chemistry Professor at Northwestern University, and in this book, he provides the most comprehensive and lucid exposition of the chemical basis of drug action that I have seen. No matter how complicated biological systems and their interactions are, at the basic level, it's all chemistry, and mostly organic chemistry. An organic chemist will find this book extremely illuminating in a way that would not have been made clear through his traditional education.
The book opens with a short but clear discussion of drug discovery, combinatorial chemistry, and clinical testing and trials. Then it leads the reader through a variety of enzyme catalyzed reactions, with examples of major drugs studded all the way. Silverman shows us how nature is the master organic chemist, employing the familiar reactions of chemistry in an unsurpassed way. The chapter on enzyme inhibition is long and detailed, and it's breathtaking. Which is important because almost all major drugs act by inhibiting enzymes. The examples which Silverman chooses to illustrate are both important (including many bestselling anti-cancer, anti-viral, and antibiotic drugs to name a few), as well as very interesting. The last parts of the book deal with DNA binding drugs, and with pathways of drug metabolism and excretion. Along all the way, the emphasis is on the chemical reactions that drugs undergo, which after all is what controls their properties. The lucidity of the book is such that a beginning graduate well-versed with the basic principles of general and organic chemistry can easily understand all the contents.
This book is so interesting and illuminating that it's one of the very few academic books which I have actually read from the first to the last page, with every word in between. In fact, it even makes great bedside reading! Truly a must-have book for all chemists and biologists of every kind, interested in how drugs work.

Fantastic Book for chemists and medicinal chemists
Some books of this nature tend to focus on the synthesis of drug molecules and less about how they work and why. This book is just the opposite and walks the reader through a logical progression of drug discovery, design and target specificity. This book makes a great introduction to Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics which could be considered the bible of the subject.

Check out the new edition of this book
There is a new considerably expanded and updated edition available of Silverman's already classic text as of Jan/04. ISBN is 0-12-643732-7. Check it out... price is comparable to the earlier edition.