A drug will not function unless it is bound to a receptor: a longstanding confusion in basic pharmacology.

The disparity between the general definition of a ‘drug’ and the wide-spread mechanism of actions of receptor-dependent drugs may often mislead to believe that a drug-receptor interaction is always indispensable for a drug to exert its action. This short review is intended to rectify this basic misconception in pharmacology with the aid of a list of examples of several receptor-independent drugs in context to their mode of actions.