Two Decades under the Influence of the Rule of Five and the Changing Properties of Approved Oral Drugs

Two decades have passed since the rule of five ushered in the concept of "drug-like" properties. Attempts to quantify, correlate, and categorize molecules based on Ro5 parameters evolved into the introduction of efficiency metrics with far reaching consequences in decision making by industry leaders and scientists seeking to discover new medicines. Examination of oral drug parameters approved before and after the original Ro5 analysis demonstrates that some parameters such as clogP and HBD remained constant while the cutoffs for parameters such as molecular weight and HBA have increased substantially over the past 20 years. The time dependent increase in the molecular weight of oral drugs during the past 20 years provides compelling evidence to disprove the hypothesis that molecular weight is a "drug-like" property. This analysis does not validate parameters that have not changed as being "drug-like" but instead calls into question the entire hypothesis that "drug-like" properties exist.