Searching for a chemical that can cure or lessen the effects of a disease is a bit like a treasure hunt. Instead of wandering around the Caribbean in search of gold, medicinal chemist make thousands of compounds and then tests them on enzymes, cells, and animals at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to find a single chemical that they can sell to billion dollar markets.
Scientists revealed the stories behind their searches for several experimental drugs at the AmericanChemical Society meeting in Chicago in front of an audience of several hundred of their peers. Many of these stories were carefully guarded secrets until Sunday. To protect future profits, drug companies are careful to lock down their intellectual property and get several years ahead of their competition before making massive public disclosures like this. Although some of the drug candidates are already in Phase II and III FDA clinical trials, how scientists discovered them was a secret until this past weekend.
Read the stories behind the next blockbuster drugs here.
