The invention provides a water-soluble prodrug compound comprising a therapeutically effective moiety coupled via a metabolically cleavable bond to a protein binding moiety, wherein said therapeutically effective moiety has an anticancer, antiinflammatory, antiinfective or antipain effect, said protein binding moiety binds non-covalently to blood proteins, and the protein binding of said compound is at least 100% higher than that of the therapeutically effective moiety itself, with the exclusion of (i) the monoester of gemcitabine with azelaic acid, (ii) the monoester of dideoxycytidine with 1,12-dodecanedicarboxylic acid, (iii) 2-amino-1,9-dihydro-9(2′-(1-(10-acetyl-decanoyloxy)ethoxymethyl))-guanine, (iv) 5′-cytarabine monoester with 1,4-phenylene diacetic acid, (v) the monoester of metronidazole with 1,4-butanedicarboxylic acid, and (vi) the monoester of metronidazole with 1,6-phenylene diacetic acid; and pre-prodrugs metabolizable thereto.