Aderis Pharmaceuticals develops its new medicines by targeting the molecular underpinnings of disease with proprietary small-molecule drugs that either mimic (agonists) or oppose (antagonists) the actions of the body's natural signal molecules.

Signal molecules interact with special recognition sites called receptors, which are proteins located on the surface of the cell, that mediate a variety of physiological effects. Receptors for naturally occurring signal molecules such as adenosine or dopamine exist in a variety of subtypes that are distributed among tissues. This receptor subtype distribution allows any individual signal molecule to mediate different actions in different tissues.

Aderis has designed proprietary small molecule analogs of signal molecules that act at individual receptor subtypes. These receptor-subtype selective drugs exert a more potent therapeutic action with fewer side effects than are possible with current standard products, which cannot distinguish among members of a particular receptor family.

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