The exponentially growing availability of open data and its exploitation in drug discovery and development has a significant impact on the way how Pharmaceutical Sciences are progressing. Semantic-web technologies for flexible integration of databases, web-based tools which allow the mining of large life science data sets, mobile apps for instant availability of information, new approaches for classifying targets and assays are just a few examples of the immense opportunities offered by the concept of openness. In this special issue devoted to “Open Innovation in Drug Discovery” a few snapshots in this area are highlighted, demonstrating how the whole community will benefit from applications built upon open data.

Articles include:
REVIEW: Taking Open Innovation to the Molecular Level – Strengths and Limitations
COMMUNICATIONS: PharmaTrek: A Semantic Web Explorer for Open Innovation in Multitarget Drug Discovery

This entire special issue is available open access, thanks to financial support from Open PHACTS  and Wiley-VCH.

About the Journal
Molecular Informatics is a peer-reviewed, international forum for publication of high-quality, interdisciplinary research on all molecular aspects of bio/cheminformatics and computerassisted molecular design. Having commenced publication in 2010, it just received a first Impact Factor of 2.390 – straight into the top quartile of the Mathematics & Computational Biology category**!

**2011 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2012)