Typically I would be referring to the protein (or other molecule) that you want to target with a drug, to either reduce or promote its action. As wiki puts it:

Typically I would be referring to the protein (or other molecule) that you want to target with a drug, to either reduce or promote its action. As wiki puts it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_discovery#Drug_targets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_discovery#Drug_targets Generally, the "target" is the naturally existing cellular or molecular structure involved in the pathology of interest that the drug-in-development is meant to act on.