The Ernst Schering Research Foundation sponsored its 15th workshop in Berlin on October 19-21
1994. Leading scientists from Europe and North America were invited to discuss computer-aided
drug design in industrial research. Computer-aided drug design is a very exciting field and an
intellec tual challenge like playing chess. But these reasons are no longer suf ficient to
justify using this method in industry if they ever were. Fig. 1. The participants of the
workshop VI Preface Therefore when we together with Prof. Hoyer started to think about this
workshop our intentions quickly became clear. We were not so much interested in the very
latest developments of methods or in computer-aided drug design itself - enough conferences
have dealt with these topics. However we were very interested in the usefulness and
limitations of computer-aided drug design in the indu strial research process. A lot has
changed in the pharmaceutical industry recently. These changes are gaining momentum so it is
the right time to think about the role of computer-aided drug design in this changing
environment.
