Depending on the number of imposed constraints, a typical search for a drug-like molecule takes from few to tens of minutes and within this time inspects tens to hundreds of thousands of reaction candidates. Ultimately, a user-specified number of top-scoring pathways (typically 50-100) are returned and displayed as bipartite graphs with nodes that are expandable to display molecular structures, suggested reaction conditions typical to a given reaction class, and more. The results described in the following come from various searches executed by our team over the course of two days and using three machines, each with 64 cores. Multiple searches were performed on the newest version of the program (not yet transitioned onto the commercial Synthia TM platform owned and distributed by Sigma-Aldrich/Merck) with various parameters to reflect different economic scenarios of the desired syntheses and with different types of abovementioned constraints. In all, these searches considered on the order of millions of potential intermediates and synthetic plans. The common feature of the searches was the desire to offer alternatives to existing syntheses and to suggest multiple synthetic plans using diverse but inexpensive starting materials. In considering the prices of the starting materials, we naturally realized that catalog prices from a specialty-chemicals retailer such as Sigma-Aldrich, S-A, are significantly higher than from whole-sale producers. Still, substrates inexpensive in S-A are even less inexpensive from larger-scale suppliers, as evidenced by the correlation shown in Figure and spanning substrates of the new syntheses of HCQ we identified. We will discuss these issues in more detail along with specific routes. To begin with, we surveyed the available literature to construct a synthetic network summarizing currently known syntheses of HCQ (Figure ). Somewhat remarkably, although HCQ has been off-patent for decades, a large proportion of methods involved have been patented, sometimes quite recently, substantiating our concern of potential IP complications in case of emergency production by independent agents. These solutions hinge at the late stage attachment of the side chain performed either via (i) nucleophilic aromatic substitution of dichloroquinoline 1 and amine 2, or (ii) reductive amination of aminochloroquinoline 3 (itself derived from 1) and ketone 4, the latter being the starting material for the preparation of 2. The two "hubs" of the network are, obviously, 1 or 4 though they are quite different from the economic and logistic points of view. The heterocyclic part of HCQ, 1, is rather inexpensive (1.50 $/g from S-A, 0.26 $/g from Biosynth Carbosynth) and in case of supply problems, can be sourced (in 94% yield, via chlorination using POCl3) from hydroxychloroquinoline 13 which, in turn, can be made in ~ 40% yields in two steps either from 3-chloroaniline, diethyl malonate and ethyl orthoformate (respectively, 9.51 $/g from S-A, 0.05 $/g from Oakwood Chemical, OC; 0.04 $/g S-A, 0.015 $/g OC; 0.12 $/g S-A, 0.03 $/g OC) or from 3-chloroaniline, acrylic acid (or methyl acrylate) and tosyl chloride (respectively, 9.51 $/g S-A, 0.05 $/g OC; 1.48 $/g S-A, 0.02$/g from Gelest Inc.; 1.43 $/g S-A, 0.03 $/g from Alfa Aesar ; 0.02 $/g S-A, 0.04 $/g from Alfa Aesar). Alternatively, 1 can be obtained from chloroquinolinone 14, available via a similar two-step sequence starting from 3chloroaniline, Meldrum's acid (1.75 $/g S-A, 0.07 $/g from AbaChemScene) and ethyl orthoformate. Some more recent approaches for the preparation of 14 hinge on different starting materials (4-chloroacetophenone or 2-amino-4-chlorobenzoic acid) but require at least four steps.