In this course, the students will learn the latest advances in molecular pharmacology and clinical drug development, illustrated by the most recent successful novel therapeutics that gained approval from the US-FDA in 2023. Assessment: Attendance and in-class quizzers: 30%, Mid-course exam: 20%, Final exam: 50% The US-FDA approved 55 novel drugs in 2023. Cancer, neurology, infectious disease and hematology drugs gained the most new approvals. Based on these newly approved drugs, this course will discuss the roles of molecular pharmacology and the advanced technology platforms played in the process of drug development that lead to the eventual success of regulatory approval. The four world-first and pioneering FDA approvals from 2023 will be used as case studies to illustrate the rational of modern drug development. These four historic approvals in 2023 include a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a drug that slows Alzheimer’s disease, the first oral antiviral COVID-19 treatment in adults, and the first oral medication for postpartum depression. Drug discovery and development is long, complex and expensive involving iterative improvement cycle and it starts with finding a drug target. The modern methodologies used to identify this specific point of intervention will be explored using selected FDA approved drugs in 2023. Selected cases will be used to demonstrate how the selection of molecular targets based on disease understanding will lead to a good target that is efficacious, safe, and meet clinical and commercial needs. The indispensable roles played by academic research in identifying new drug targets, including understanding target biology and links between targets and disease states will be elaborated using selected drugs approved by FDA in 2023. This will be followed by the case studies on how pharmacology research progresses from purely academic exploration to the initiation of efforts to identify and test a drug candidate in clinical trials. Finally, case studies based on 2023 FAD approval to show how smart drug developers conduct timely target assessment, such as target-related safety issues, druggability and assayability, as well as the potential for target modulation to achieve differentiation from established therapies.