Small Molecule of the Year – 2021
We asked the global drug discovery community to nominate and vote on their favorite molecule from 2021, and the results are in. The 2021 choice for Drug Hunter’s Small Molecule of the Year is Pfizer’s CoV-2 Mpro Inhibitor, PF-07321332 (nirmatrelvir, Paxlovid). Published in a November 2021 Science article, the molecule was praised for its impressive…
A Gram-Daily Aldehyde for Anemia: Voxelotor
On Feb. 16, 12:00PM PST, Dr. Mira Pochon, Staff Scientist and Head of Translational Biology at Global Blood Therapeutics, gave a PBSS/CLSA webinar on one of 2019’s drug approvals, voxelotor (GBT440). Mira has been with GBT since it’s early days in 2011. GBT’s chemistry team was led by their CSO Dr. Brian Metcalf, former head…
A Polarized C-H···O Interaction Against IRAK4
The C-H — O hydrogen bond is so well established in structural biology today, that it’s been overlooked that the C-H — O hydrogen bond was first proposed by a woman, June Sutor, in a 1960’s Nature article.[1] Hydrogen bonds were then assumed to be linear (A-H···A’ between 150-180º), and the C-H — O hydrogen…
That Jimmy Carter Drug
Checkpoint inhibitors like pembrolizumab (Keytruda) have revolutionized treatment for many late-stage cancer patients, including Jimmy Carter. Recently, Keytruda stunned the world again with efficacy in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, the leading cancer killer. Here’s a summary of its recent successes and the surprising path Keytruda took through two acquisitions and the Merck “out-license” list.…
The Post-Gleevec Era
Gleevec (imatinib) was the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of cancer and one of the first products to emerge from “rational drug design.” It’s invention changed chronic myeloid leukemia from an incurable death sentence to a manageable disease. Here’s a look back on the tremendous value it’s created over the last two…
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