Combinatorial chemistry in drug research from a new vantage point Review Article

Combinatorial synthesis can be conducted in two distinctively different ways; the product can be generated either by parallel synthesis so that its components are available individually or it may be prepared as a mixture of compounds. Maintenance of spacial segregation of the individual reaction products provides the particular advantage of their direct compatibility, but limits the size of the number of components for practical reasons. If mixtures are chosen, this number may be much larger; lead identification, however, is then no longer a direct process.