Handcrafted compounds

At the beginning of the 1990s, when HTS was in its early development, the average compound collection in a pharmaceutical company was little more than a compilation of in-house and handcrafted compounds from focused medicinal chenustry programs. These were not compound libraries but a series of collections based on then-relevant core structures, such as P-lactams, bendiazapines, and tetracyclines, each with its place in chemical space but certainly not filling it. 

The handcrafted compounds from third parties are generally compounds that have been collected by vendors from academic sources which meet the selection criteria set by pharmaceutical companies for their compound acquisition programs. It is not our purpose to make a case for or against any particular source of compounds in the library it is to arrive at an approximate cost for a library of useful size. A nicely balanced library with 1 million compounds will cost between 25 million and 50 million to purchase. The costs of proper storage, retrieval, and maintenance are not included (see below). 

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