Advances in molecular biology and genetics have furnished more targets than could be reasonably progressed, forcing the pharmaceutical industry to invest in increasing chemistry and screening throughput. Combinatorial chemistry, automation and miniaturization are described as the keys to success. Many pharmaceutical companies assisted by the vendor community have risen to the challenges, delivering more functional and reliable robotics; a number of recent developments are described. These, in turn, have highlighted other deficiencies, for example in target selection, integration and scheduling, and assay and reaction optimization. These areas provide the challenges for the future and have already sparked several new initiatives, a number of which are described.