Small Molecules Evolve

Small molecule drugs make up most of the drugs we take conveniently as pills, including painkillers like ibuprofen (Advil), antibiotics like penicillin and amoxicillin, or cholesterol-lowering drugs like atorvastatin (Lipitor). The biotechnology revolution allowed scientists to create drugs through genetic engineering and related biological processes, creating a new category of drugs known as “biologics.”...

Small molecule drugs make up most of the drugs we take conveniently as pills, including painkillers like ibuprofen (Advil), antibi...

A Cross-Functional Mindset in DMPK

Dian Su’s journey from chemistry and proteomics to the DMPK of drug conjugates Following a different path comes naturally to Dian Su, Senior Director of DMPK at Bicycle Therapeutics. From a childhood in a small village in China’s northeast Shandong province to her work examining the drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) of antibody-drug [...]

Dian Su’s journey from chemistry and proteomics to the DMPK of drug conjugates Following a different path comes naturally to Dian ...

How Recent Drug Pricing Laws Impact Drug Discovery (H.R. 5376)

A significant section of the Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376) recently signed into law was targeted at lowering public spending on prescription drugs (Subtitle B: Prescription Drug Pricing Reform). The new laws include Medicare negotiation and includes a provision that disproportionately affects small molecules which have triggered [...]

A significant section of the Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376) recently signed into law was targeted at lowering public spending...

Curcumin: A Powerfully Active Ingredient Known to Scientists

April 1st, 2023 - Molecule of the Day: Curcumin Curcumin is a component of tumeric, and is sold as an herbal supplement, cosmetics ingredient, food flavoring, and food coloring. The molecule is one of the most widely studied therapeutics in history, with papers, reviews, patents, and other sources citing its potential for treating cancer [...]

April 1st, 2023 - Molecule of the Day: Curcumin Curcumin is a component of tumeric, and is sold as an herbal supplement, cosmetics...

From AZ to VC: Tracing Our Industry’s Recent Evolution Through A Career

Our Drug Hunter subscribers at Curie.Bio recently made headlines with the launch of their new >$500M venture fund with a new model for early-stage biotech financing to help founders launch therapeutics companies. Curie.Bio intends to act not only as an investor, but also as a day-to-day operating partner to help founders choose targets [...]

Our Drug Hunter subscribers at Curie.Bio recently made headlines with the launch of their new >$500M venture fund with a new model...

Not Your Grandparents’ Drugs: How Approved Drugs Have Evolved Since the 70’s

We recently explored how the lipophilicity (logP) of drugs has changed over time and found that, on average, drugs have become more lipophilic through the decades, primarily attributable to the industry’s move away from natural products. Despite this shift, it is clear from a broad qualitative comparison of structures from past decades to [...]

We recently explored how the lipophilicity (logP) of drugs has changed over time and found that, on average, drugs have become mor...

AI for All? How Pharma Partnerships Improve Software Solutions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing data processing, with applications to drug discovery ranging from automating cellular imaging to modeling protein folding . Although numerous startups are developing methods to apply AI-driven drug discovery to develop proprietary assets, a remaining challenge is making these powerful tools [...]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing data processing, with applications to drug discovery ranging from automating cellu...

Computational Partnership in Small Molecule Drug Discovery

The real magic happens when chemists can integrate computational models into their assay cascades, thanks to trust in their predictions. To get there, grounding computational predictions in physics and experimental reality makes all the difference. In this article, Abba E. Leffler, Ph.D. from Schrödinger tells us about: How to make [...]

The real magic happens when chemists can integrate computational models into their assay cascades, thanks to trust in their predic...

Drug Hunter Letters #3 - September 2022

This edition of Drug Hunter Letters highlights recent insightful communications from Drug Hunter readers, including: Simon Bury on the History of GSK’s Recently Acquired $1.9B JAK Inhibitor Callie Bryan and Bryan McKibben on Insulin Receptor Partial Agonists and Recent Oncology Highlights Jesse Keicher on CXCR1/2 Antagonists in Treating [...]

This edition of Drug Hunter Letters highlights recent insightful communications from Drug Hunter readers, including: Simon Bury on...

Agile Drug Hunting

As biotech experts, risk taking is part of our business model. Without scientific and business risk, inventions would not occur and businesses would not grow. How do we know we are taking appropriate risks at the right time? How do we know we are using agile drug development strategies by tracking, understanding, and mitigating risk as our [...]

As biotech experts, risk taking is part of our business model. Without scientific and business risk, inventions would not occur an...

Beginning with the End in Mind: Five Minutes with a Commercial Leader

Product development is unique in biopharma in the degree of separation between product developers (R&D scientists) and end users (patients and practitioners). While R&D focuses on questions like “Is it possible to treat this disease?” and “How can we drug this target?”, commercial organizations focus on questions like “Why does a physician [...]

Product development is unique in biopharma in the degree of separation between product developers (R&D scientists) and end users (...

Shaken by An Unexpected Patient Connection

with Julien Lefranc We asked one of our reviewers, Julien Lefranc , about what inspires and excites him about drug discovery. Here, he tells us about an unexpected, moving connection with a cancer patient, and what drives him to work every day. About Julien Julien is a Principal Scientist at Merck KGaA in Darmstadt and is a member of the [...]

with Julien Lefranc We asked one of our reviewers, Julien Lefranc , about what inspires and excites him about drug discovery. Here...

Highlights from Q1 2022 Webinar Part II

Thank you to all of the drug hunters who attended our second drug discovery webinar! You can find the video and slides at the bottom of this page. In part II of this series we covered: Emerging startups, growing drug discovery companies, and IPOs Clinical readouts, positive and negative Big deals and major regulatory actions Check out part [...]

Thank you to all of the drug hunters who attended our second drug discovery webinar! You can find the video and slides at the bott...

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: carboxylic acids forming thioesters with CoA might be a greater danger [...]

Recently, Dr. Alf Claesson (CEO of Awametox AB, inventor of SpotRM, and previously Principal Scientist and Section Head at AstraZe...

Highlights from Q1 2022 Webinar

It was great to see over 100 drug hunters at our first drug discovery webinar! You can find the video and slides at the bottom of this page. The scope of this talk grew to be a bit massive as we were planning it, so we decided to split it into two parts. This first part covered: Interesting tidbits from 2022 Q1's drug approvals Cool facets [...]

It was great to see over 100 drug hunters at our first drug discovery webinar! You can find the video and slides at the bottom of ...

“It Always Seems Impossible Until It’s Done”

Contrary to popular belief, pharma is incredibly competitive, with dozens of companies often working on the same hot target at the same time. What sets pharma apart from the outside world though, is how deeply we respect our competitors and other scientists when they succeed at cracking technical challenges. Here, Dr. [...]

Contrary to popular belief, pharma is incredibly competitive, with dozens of companies often working on the same hot target at the...

What is a Drug Hunter?

If you’re here reading about drug discovery for fun, you’re probably a drug hunter. You might be someone on your way to a leadership role in pharma or biotech. Maybe you’re decades into your career and already leading an R&D division. You don’t have a PhD in drug hunting, and it’s unlikely to be in your job description. But something makes [...]

If you’re here reading about drug discovery for fun, you’re probably a drug hunter. You might be someone on your way to a leadersh...

It Takes a Village

New drugs are discovered by teams, not individuals. "Drug discovery is a complex undertaking, and I enjoy the collaboration with many people from different disciplines and expertise areas that it takes to solve this impossible puzzle," says reviewer Joachim Rudolph . Drug Hunter also takes a community to build, and we [...]

New drugs are discovered by teams, not individuals. "Drug discovery is a complex undertaking, and I enjoy the collaboration with m...

Drug Discovery Papers Meme

There was a hilarious set of memes circulating the internet on scientific papers thanks to xkcd.com’s original comic . Here’s our drug discovery scientist’s parody. Since people expressed an interest in being able to find this again, here it is: Explore drughunter.com for more on drug discovery.

There was a hilarious set of memes circulating the internet on scientific papers thanks to xkcd.com’s original comic . Here’s our ...

"Don't Work on Things That Don't Work"

At the time of this writing Kim Huard was one of Genentech’s Senior Scientists, and has spent a decade looking for new medicines.  She spent eight years at Pfizer at the Groton and Cambridge sites before joining us in California. She's currently a Director in the Discovery Chemistry department leading teams of scientists in pursuit of new [...]

At the time of this writing Kim Huard was one of Genentech’s Senior Scientists, and has spent a decade looking for new medicines. ...

What is a Biologic Drug Anyway?

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Own Definition. Recently I posted on “biologic drugs” which were approved in 2019 . All was well in my little scientific universe, until I received this in an email: “You recently reported "14 novel biologic drugs," referring to 'novel' biopharmaceuticals approved CDER. But, … You also include [...]

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Own Definition. Recently I posted on “biologic drugs” which were approved in 2019 ....

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 [...]

Gleevec (imatinib) was the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of cancer and one of the first products to e...