Taking Medicines

Is it just me, or do all chemists guess the structure of a medicine before they take it? After having a guess, I then Google it and look up the synthesis, where possible.

I am currently using Ketoconazole for a skin condition (over-share, sorry). Immediately I knew there was a ketone (keto) and a nitrogen containing heterocycle (azole = five-membered nitrogen ring containing at least one other heteroatom) in there.  Conazoles are a common type of fungicide containing an imidazole or triazole ring so that narrowed it down further for me. I could not predict any thing more so looked up the structure (DOI: 10.1021/jm00194a023). It is actually a lot more complex than I expected.

Ketoconazole

Similarly, a few years ago I took Metronidazole and, as usual, I tried to predict the structure from the name. I guessed there was a nitrogen heterocycle, probably an imidazole ring and possibly nitro group. I wasn’t far off this time! When looking up the structure, I was very surprised by the simplicity of the structure and the synthesis (DOI:10.1007/BF00764821).

Metronidazole

So, is it just me? Or do you all try and predict aspects of a drug molecule before you take it? Have you ever guessed close to the true structure? If so, share in the comments section below.