Soft drug design represents a new approach aimed to design safer drugs with an increased therapeutic index by integrating metabolism considerations into the drug design process. Soft drugs are new therapeutic agents that undergo predictable metabolism to inactive metabolites after exerting their therapeutic effect. Hence, they are obtained by building into the molecule, in addition to the activity, the most desired way in which the molecule is to be deactivated and detoxified. In an attempt to systematize and summarize the related work done in a number of laboratories, including ours, the present review presents an overview of the general soft drug design principles and provides a variety of specific examples to illustrate the concepts. A number of already marketed drugs, such as esmolol, remifentanil, or loteprednol etabonate, resulted from the successful application of such design principles. Many other promising drug candidates are currently under investigation in a variety of fields including possible soft antimicrobials, anticholinergics, corticosteroids, beta-blockers, analgetics, ACE inhibitors, antiarrhythmics, and others. Whenever possible, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties are briefly summarized and compared to those of other compounds used in the same field.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
9
11%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
6
7%
Medicine and Dentistry
5
6%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
2
2%
Other
8
10%
Unknown
30
36%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 January 2026.
All research outputs
#3,340,355
of 30,878,141 outputs
Outputs from Medicinal Research Reviews
#84
of 969 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,706
of 134,084 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Medicinal Research Reviews
#1
of 14 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 30,878,141 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 969 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 134,084 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 14 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
