Until the latter part of the 20th century, nature generally was regarded as the most prolific source of bioactive small-molecules. According to National Cancer Institute scientists, well over half (and for certain therapeutic areas, approximately three-quarters) of small-molecule new molecular entities introduced as drugs worldwide during a recent 20-year period are natural products or are natural product-related. There are marketed natural product drugs--including Taxol(R), penicillin, quinine, aspirin, Mevacor(R), and morphine--for almost every therapeutic indication. The importance of nature as a source of bioactive small-molecules is immediately evident, as these molecules have evolved in order to enhance the survival of the organisms that produce them.

Nevertheless, over the past 15+ years, all but a few pharmaceutical companies have abandoned natural products in favor of high-throughput chemical synthesis for generating large numbers of structurally diverse molecules for drug discovery. The reasons for this paradigm shift are largely economic; however, the new strategy has yet to match expectations.

In this symposium, an all-star array of speakers--representing academia, industry, and government--will highlight the full range of natural products chemistry and associated areas of biomedical science in which the use of natural products has been critical to success.