Overview and Perspectives of Funding for Combinatorial Target Drugs by the National Natural Science Foundation of China

In March 2025，the Department of Health Sciences in the National Natural Science Foundation of China （NSFC） held the 399th Shuangqing Forum themed “Combinatorial Targets and Innovative Drugs”，which provided solid theoretical support for the forward-looking layout of basic research on combinatorial target drugs. This paper systematically analyzes the application and funding status of NSFC for combinatorial target drug research in Materia Medica （H34） and Pharmacology （H35） from 2015 to 2024. Both the number of funded projects and the total funding amount have increased steadily over the past decade. Research mainly focuses on drug combination therapy，multi-component drugs，and single-component multi-target drugs for complex diseases including malignant tumors，infectious diseases，neuropsychiatric disorders，and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases，concentrating in pharmaceutics，synthetic medicinal chemistry，and antitumor pharmacology. Key bottlenecks in target discovery，molecular design，formulation delivery，clinical translation，and regulatory evaluation are identified. Integrated with clinical resources in China，cutting-edge technological advances such as artificial intelligence and high-throughput screening，and the multi-target features of traditional Chinese medicine and natural medicines，this paper proposes future directions toward clinical value orientation，empowerment by innovative technologies，and reference to experience in natural medicine research and development. This study provides a scientific reference for NSFC to optimize the funding strategy in the field of combinatorial target drugs and to promote the high-quality development of China’s innovative drugs.