The World Health Organization (WHO) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) recently proposed a classification of diseases into three categories: global, neglected, and very neglected. The majority of pharmaceutical companies' R&D efforts are focused on global ailments such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mental (CNS) diseases. Millions of individuals around the world are affected by neglected diseases, but current pharmacological therapy is limited and sometimes ineffective. Furthermore, persons living in deplorable conditions with only the minimal essentials for survival are affected by extremely neglected diseases. The majority of these disorders are not included in the goals of pharmaceutical R&D projects, and hence fall outside the pharmaceutical market. Infectious diseases kill over 14 million people each year, mostly in developing nations. Only 1% of new medications licenced between 1975 and 1999 were for the treatment of neglected diseases. These figures have remained constant, indicating that new medication design and synthesis are urgently needed in those countries, and the prodrug method is a promising area in this regard. It improves the marketability of present and novel medications by enhancing activity and reducing toxicity, among other things. It's worth mentioning that saving time and money is critical in drug development, and prodrug techniques are of particular relevance in this regard.
