Biopharma Consultant
Adjunct Faculty, Harvard Extension School
Host: Stuart Firestein
Title: The Drug Hunters: The Improbable Quest to Discover New Medicines
Abstract: Most people, and probably the majority of drug hunters themselves, believe that the process by which a new medicine is discovered is similar to the way a new type of mobile phone, a new jet liner or a driver-less car is invented. After a 35 year career in the pharma industry I began to wonder whether this is correct, so I decided to research the drug discovery process and learned, to my surprise, that nothing could be farther from the truth. The drug discovery process is totally different from engineering. I will illustrate this by describing the surprising stories of how some of our most important medicines were found.