AbstractWhen a drug molecule approaches a non‐specific acceptor both molecules are in electrostatic fields of equal sign which prevents drug–acceptor complex formation. At the same time, the drug–acceptor system does not achieve the thermodynamic global minimum. Otherwise, when a certain drug interacts with its specific receptor, mutual compensation of their molecular electrostatic potentials takes place. Then separate atoms and groups of the drug molecule can bind to the receptor. We show that the fundamental role of molecular electrostatic potential in the process of drug–receptor recognition consists in fast correction of errors. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.