(Aryloxyamino)benzoic acids and nicotinic/isonicotinic acids represent an important new class of small molecules that inhibit the activation of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF)-1. In order to understand the factors affecting inhibitory potency of HIF-1 inhibitors, 3 dimensional-quantitative structure activity relationship (3D-QSAR) studies were performed. Since no receptor structure are available, the pharmacophore-based alignment was used for comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA). The CoMFA and CoMSIA models gave reasonable statistics (CoMFA: $q^2;=;0.564$, $r^2=0.945$; CoMSIA: $q^2;=;0.575$, $r^2=0.929$). Both CoMFA and CoMSIA results indicate that the steric interaction is a major factor, while CoMSIA suggests importance of hydrogen bonding. These findings about steric and H-bonding effects can be useful to design new inhibitors.