What are the Current Challenges in Medicinal Chemistry? A small minority of the diseases that accompany our lives can be cured, many more are treated to a satisfactory extent, and others are currently in need of acceptable treatments. It is on this last group that we focus our discussion. The classical criteria of distinguishing between developing and developed countries, transmittable and non-transmittable diseases, incidence and prevalence, fundamental knowledge about the etiology of the disease sufficient to develop a useful drug and the need of a market that may repay the expenses are instrumental to the coming considerations. The underdeveloped and developing countries have health emergencies of their own, mostly due to transmittable diseases, some of which are typical for the given country’s climate. A negative interplay between poor knowledge of the etiology of these diseases and poor economic conditions of the affected populations leads to the poorest medical results. Between 1975 and 2004 only 20 drugs were registered for the treatment of tuberculosis, malaria, and tropical diseases, compared with 1556 drugs for treating diseases in the developed world. The situation is now changing for a number of reasons that are beginning to bridge economy with ethics, and neglected and tropical diseases are now under greater focus, although the situation will remain critical until the problem of patents and intellectual property (IP) protection at large, is solved. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has taken a positive step forward in this area by reaching an agreement with South Africa, 08/2010 ChemMedChem, European in origin but international in scope, deals with all aspects of drug discovery. It is co-owned by Chemistry Publishing Society Europe (ChemPubSoc Europe) and is published by Wiley-VCH. Contributions in ChemMedChem cover medicinal and pharmaceutical sciences, drug design, drug development and delivery, molecular modeling, combinatorial chemistry, target validation, lead generation, and ADMET studies, that is, research from the overlapping areas between biology, chemistry, and medicine. ChemMedChem publishes Communications and Full Papers, as well as Reviews, Minireviews, Highlights, Concepts, Essays, Book Reviews, and occasionally Conference Reports. Authors can submit manuscripts to ChemMedChem online through our homepage (see over) by clicking on “Online Submission” and following the simple instructions.