Why are most drugs mostly made of carbon and hydrogen, and some with oxygen and trace amounts of other elements?

Question

I understand that carbon is what makes something “organic” or not, I just don’t understand why so many drugs are essentially hydrocarbons of varying sizes.

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Answer 1

Because that’s what most of *all* organic molecules are made of. Look any organic chemical and for the most part, you’re only mostly to see just 4 elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sometimes one or two others.

That’s because all life on Earth is mostly made up of those elements, so to be biologically active, a molecule has to be able to interact with our own biochemistry.