Lead compound
A lead compound (, i.e., a "leading" compound; not to be confused with various compounds of the element lead) in drug discovery is a chemical compound that has pharmacological or biological activity likely to be therapeutically useful, but may nevertheless have suboptimal structure that requires modification to fit better to the target; lead drugs offer the prospect of being followed by "back-up" compounds. The chemical structure serves as a starting point for chemical modifications in order to improve potency, selectivity, or pharmacokinetic parameters.