Bringing External Expertise In-House: Expert Talk on Small Molecule Drug Discovery

June 2026, Regensburg, Germany – 2bind GmbH recently had the pleasure of hosting Till Maurer, a drug discovery expert with extensive industry experience and founder of Nanomol Pharmaceutical Innovations (NPI), for an internal Keynote & Roundtable on small molecule drug discovery. Through a series of concrete examples drawn from industry-relevant development programs, the session provided 2bind’s team with an in-depth perspective on key scientific and strategic aspects of one of the most established and therapeutically important areas of pharmaceutical research.

Key Facts

• Expert Speaker: Till Maurer, founder of Nanomol Pharmaceutical Innovations (NPI) and drug discovery expert with extensive industry experience, delivered the talk.
• Topic: The Keynote & Roundtable session covered key scientific and strategic aspects of small molecule drug discovery, including natural product-derived therapeutics, screening methodologies, mechanistic drug design, and market developments.
• Scientific Exchange: The session fostered substantive discussion on both the underlying science and its practical implications for drug discovery programs.

Keynote & Roundtable on Small Molecule Drug Discovery: Science, Strategy, and Market Context

A central theme of the talk was the role of natural products as a foundation for small molecule therapeutics. A significant proportion of approved small molecule drugs trace their origins to plant-derived or naturally occurring compounds, which are subsequently subjected to medicinal chemistry optimization to improve potency, selectivity, metabolic stability, and tolerability. This iterative process of structural modification, often guided by structure-activity relationships, remains a cornerstone of modern drug discovery and was illustrated through concrete examples of compounds that have successfully translated from natural scaffolds into clinical candidates.

The Keynote & Roundtable session also addressed hit identification and lead optimization methodologies, covering how screening approaches enable the systematic identification of promising starting points from large compound collections and their subsequent refinement into leads with well-defined pharmacological profiles. The diversity of biological mechanisms accessible to small molecules was also discussed, alongside the role of mechanistic understanding in guiding rational drug design and compound progression through the development pipeline.

Till further contextualized these scientific discussions within the broader landscape of the small molecule market, offering a perspective on how the field is evolving in response to shifting priorities across the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Despite the continued rise of biologics and novel therapeutic modalities, small molecules retain a central role in drug discovery, with emerging areas such as targeted protein degradation and covalent inhibitor development driving renewed scientific and commercial interest.

The talk concluded with a productive Q&A exchange between Till and 2bind’s team, spanning both fundamental science and its practical implications for drug discovery programs. The session reflects 2bind’s dynamic and growth-oriented culture, defined by scientific ambition, a forward-thinking mindset, and the active pursuit of new knowledge through engagement with leading experts from across the drug discovery community.