Derek Lowe's commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry. An editorially independent blog from the publishers of Science Translational Medicine.
Another useful paper (Science 296, 1276) has come out on the mechanisms of aging. Ever since the 1950s, the idea of accumulating free radical damage has been a strong contender, to the point that it’s been absorbed into popular culture. All the free radicals needed for this damage to take place are produced by our… Read More
Charles Murtaugh has an interesting piece on drug discovery, and invites me to correct any misstatements that he may have made. Hey, under my no-sparrow-shall-fall policy on mentions of drug discovery in the blogosphere, I’d have put my oar in anyway. Charles’s main point is exactly right: that discoveries in the medical/biotech field a… Read More
I’m still working on the research idea I’ve been talking about. New data from some of my colleagues is helping out quite a bit, but it means changing the experimental design quite a bit, too. Beats flying blind, though, I have to say. Things have moved from the blast-of-inspiration stage to the get-this-thing-to-work stage. That’s… Read More
Yesterday’s report on pharmaceutical cost and innovation got a lot of play in the media, including the ABC special last night (which I didn’t see much of.) I’m of two minds about it: there’s some truth in it, but there are important things that it misses. Companies will do everything they can think of to… Read More
Coming back to the lab after a few days off presents the same picking-up-the-threads problem as any other job. Just what was I doing, anyway? It was even worse when I was spending all my time synthesizing molecules (now, I spend some time doing that, and the rest of the time sitting in my office… Read More
I see that some of my comments have spread to investors in Entremed, so let me take a few paragraphs to mention some points. I should write these up in a combination FAQ / disclaimer to deal with these situations. First off, as it says on the top of the page, I don’t speak for… Read More
I’ve received some mail pointing out that James Watson denied the “cure cancer in two years” quote which appeared in the 1998 Times article. I was aware of those denials, but (since you have to make a judgment call on these things,) I believe that he probably did say it. Why? First of all, because… Read More
Mickey Kaus, in his link to yesterday’s post, mentioned that the company I work for seems down on peptides as drugs, and asked his readers to keep that in mind when they read my opinion on endostatin. All I can say is, it isn’t just me (or my company.) You won’t find much of anyone… Read More
Over at the new home of Kausfiles, Mickey Kaus wondered on Monday about all the news coming out of the ASCO (American Society for Clinical Oncology) meeting. Does it show that the hype in the famous 1998 NY Times front-page story on Judah Folkman and his cancer therapy was actually justified? Does the world owe… Read More
There’s another aspect to pharmaceutical patenting that you really only find in the US, among major countries: “method of treatment” patents. I don’t care for them, myself, but before I explain why, it’ll help to see what the usual patents cover. The traditional drug patent is for composition of matter – you̵… Read More
