Reflection on the First Approved PROTAC and the Future of Small Molecule Drugs: A Conversation with Prof. Craig Crews, Yale University
In May 2026, the FDA approved the first PROTAC therapy, marking the arrival of an entirely new class of medicines built on a once-radical idea: instead of merely inhibiting disease-causing proteins, drugs could be designed to eliminate them altogether. At the center of that story is Prof. Craig Crews, whose laboratory at Yale University helped pioneer the PROTAC (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera) approach more than two decades ago.