This section contains case studies, industry highlights, minireviews, and other articles for drug discovery professionals.
RECENT DRUG HUNTER ORIGINAL ARTICLES
How Does This Thing Get in the Brain??
At AAPS 2022, I hosted a symposium where Ovoca Bio plc’s Head of Research, Mikhail Lomonosov told us about orenetide. Orenetide is an internationally approved peptide drug for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) (think Viagra for women). It appears to work within a few weeks in humans with a solid safety profile – Mikhail noted…
2021 First-in-Class Large Molecule Drug Approvals (Pt. III)
This deep dive into 2021’s first-in-class large molecule drug approvals is the third in a series of focus articles on 2021’s novel large molecule drugs. See part one here, and part two here. For each of the 11 first-in-class large molecule drug approvals of 2021 (excluding vaccines), we’ll explore in more detail: how they work…
Drug Hunter Letters #2: On Carboxylic Acids and Acylglucuronides
Recently, Dr. Alf Claesson (CEO of Awametox AB, inventor of SpotRM, and previously Principal Scientist and Section Head at AstraZeneca/Astra AB, Sweden) reached out about our resource on the bioactivation of structural alerts. Dr. Claesson shared the helpful notes that: Here Dr. Claesson elaborates on carboxylic acids in particular. On carboxylic acids and acylglucuronides in…
Letters from Drug Hunters #1 – Apr. 2022
One of the privileges that have come with building Drug Hunter has been all the insightful thoughts and commentary our readers share. We also appreciate how readers help catch mistakes and offer corrections. This new series of “Drug Hunter Letters” highlights recent insightful communications from drug hunters, which includes this time: Dr. Nick Carruthers on…
New Drug Candidates at AACR New Orleans 2022
There were six small molecule candidates disclosed on Apr. 10th at AACR New Orleans 2022 at the New Drugs on the Horizon session, with another four on Apr. 11th. The New Drugs on the Horizon session is organized by the Chemistry in Cancer Research (CICR) Working Group, this year chaired by Joachim Rudolph. Thanks to…
Sisunatovir, Oral Ph. II RSV Candidate, to Be Acquired by Pfizer
It’s always nice to see a small molecule making the front page of the news, especially when it’s a Molecule of the Month from last year! Pfizer and ReViral announced an agreement for Pfizer to acquire ReViral for up to $525 million, including milestones (amount upfront not disclosed). ReViral’s lead molecule sisunatovir, is an oral,…