Scientists Find Easier Way to Make New Drug Compounds

Bristol Myers Squibb will employ a novel technique to develop and manufacture drugs.

US scientists have developed a powerful new technique that makes it easier to create new drug compounds.

The technique was devised at the Scripps Research Institute and will be used by pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb to develop and manufacture drugs.

"The new method will certainly be adopted by pharmaceutical chemists, but I expect that polymer chemists, materials chemists and others will find it useful too," said senior author Professor Jin-Quan Yu, whose advance is detailed in Nature journal.

According to the professor, the technique allows chemists to add new functional molecules to positions on existing molecules that were previously hard to reach.