The meeting covered many aspects of the use of natural products in drug discovery and development. The historical and current contributions of natural products to the main classes of medicines, technical improvements to the supply of marine microbial products by fermentation and molecular biology and the value of natural chemical diversity for providing patentable, drug-like lead molecules were among the topics discussed. Several compounds in current clinical trials were described; these included several anticancer compounds and two compounds in development by Phytopharm plc, PYM-50028 (Cogane) and PYM-50018 (Myogane), for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease.