Drug Hunter Opens 2025 Molecule of the Year Nominations

The final Molecules of the Month for 2025 have been announced, and nominations are now open for the 2025 Molecules of the Year. The annual recognition program invites the drug discovery community to nominate compounds based on technical achievement and impact.

Nominees should either have been first disclosed, or had a major update in 2025, such as clinical trial results, new publication, business transaction, or regulatory approval. Eligible molecules must have a published structure and, ideally, a publication describing their properties or discovery campaign.

The nomination process accepts clinical compounds with interesting profiles, non-clinical molecules with intriguing mechanisms of action, or recently approved drugs. Nominators can submit molecules from their own companies, but will not be able to vote for those molecules in the final selection.

Past winners of the Molecule of the Year include Vertex's NaV1.8 Inhibitor, Suzetrigine in 2024, BMS's TYK2 Inhibitor, Deucravacitinib in 2022, Pfizer's CoV-2 Mpro Inhibitor, Nirmatrelvir in 2021, and Gilead's HIV Capsid Inhibitor, Lenacapavir in 2020.

For the February 2025 edition of Molecules of the Month, the team conducted an in-depth review of hundreds of promising compounds sourced from scientific literature, conference presentations, press releases, and more. The article features over 70 additional molecules that emerged from the evaluation, including highlights of top selections and commentary on what makes them scientifically or strategically noteworthy.

For January 2025, the team evaluated hundreds of molecules from thousands of papers, press releases, conference presentations, and other materials, presenting a curated selection of over 90 additional molecules that caught attention, along with highlights of top picks and insights into why they stand out.

A collection of all 120 molecules of the month from 2025 is available for review.